


Of Howls and Drums

by ParadiseAvenger



Category: Vampire Knight
Genre: F/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-12
Updated: 2013-03-12
Packaged: 2017-12-05 02:39:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/717911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParadiseAvenger/pseuds/ParadiseAvenger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After everything that happened, friends became enemies and lovers were left behind. In the broken world that followed, he found himself unable to continue this way and she found herself unable to quench her desire without him. Adult Themes. ZeroXYuuki.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Howl

SPOILER ALERT if you don’t know the truth about Yuuki. 

This takes place after Kaname leaves and Yuuki returns to the Academy.

Maybe I should learn how to make music videos. I always hear all these songs that I think fit the characters so well, but I don’t know how to make videos so I wind up just writing about it. Ah… oh well! So much for resisting the allure of a new story. Although I intend to keep this limited to a two-shot using, Florence and the Machine’s “Howl” and “Drumming Song,” hence the title.

I found a great video for this song set to Vampire Knight, also. You know the drill, just remove the spaces: www. youtube. com/watch?v=XPj8w6rJ-eM

I do not own Florence and the Machine’s song, “Howl.”

**X:Of:X:Howls:X:and:X:Drums:X**

For once, Cross Academy was quiet. 

The Night Class students were all safely inside their classrooms, grumbling their way through lessons that they really didn’t need. Honestly, Cross Kaien was both brilliant and stupid. The idea of peace between vampires and humans was ideal, but since when did immortal creatures of the night need to know how to square root fractions and learn about Shakespeare. They had probably shaken the legendary playwright’s hand back in his prime. But still, the vampires muddled through it because first Kuran Kaname said they should and then so did Kuran Yuuki.

The Day Class students were safely bundled up in their dorms, having eagerly awaited all day for the change of classes when the beautiful Night Class came out, but they all went away disappointed at the fierce gaze of Kiryuu Zero guarding the gates alone. Cross Yuuki they would dare, ahem, cross, but no one wishing to live would dare muck with Zero. Wakaba Sayori, Cross Yuuki’s roommate inside the boarding academy, was once again sleeping in their shared room alone. Yuuki slept in the Night Class dorms now and only a few select people knew why. Yori was one of them.

But, at least for now, the Academy was quiet.

**If you could only see the beast you’ve made of me  
I held it in but now it seems you’ve set it running free  
Screaming in the dark, I howl when we’re apart  
Drag my teeth across your chest to taste your beating heart**

“Zero.” A girl’s sweet voice cut through the darkness of the forest in a whisper akin to rustling leaves. She couldn’t quite see him save the silver glint of his teeth and hair, but she knew he was there and she knew he was listening, if only to the pulse of blood in her veins. “Zero, let’s do it now,” she whispered. 

“No,” he said coldly, fingers clenching in the white shirt over his chest. A lesser girl would have turned away then and there and run for her life. After all, who in their right mind would stand here in the darkness, begging a vampire to bite into their throat and suck their blood. Maybe a stupid girl in a book or horror movie, but not in reality. 

Except, sometimes, the truth was stranger than fiction.

“Zero,” she whispered insistently. She reached out for him in the darkness, small hands groping like a bird that had found its way into the house but was unable to get out. It had been so easy for her to promise him her blood, to find her way into this, but now she wouldn’t be able to get back out again. 

And Yuuki’s body was just as frail and fragile as any bird’s—frailer, sweeter, softer, like that of a bisque doll left behind from an earlier century.

If the beast inside his body bit into her soft throat, if he drank from her life-giving veins… like ripe fruit, her flesh would break open beneath his fangs, but… her blood. He needed it! As always, his throat burned as dry and tight as any desert. Giving him away in more way than one, his eyes blazed the color of blood in the darkness, bright than even the moon on his pale white hair and sharp teeth. 

Like a ship coming into the harbor at the guidance of a lighthouse, she came to him. 

It was ritual, habit, routine, custom… With practiced ease of body though not of mind, he wrapped both arms around her small frame and held her close to support and warm her while he devoured her. She, always stronger and forcing him to do this to keep himself alive, pushed her jacket from her shoulders and stood before him in her white blouse. The cool air kissed her heated flesh and wafted the scent of her blood in her veins to him on the breeze.

“Yuuki,” he breathed and her name was so much more than just her name, just like it used to be… before all this had happened to separate them. Once again, it was everything—a plea, an apology, a question, sorrow, pain, fear, desperation, starvation, his only expression… He murmured it one more time into the curve of her neck.

She nodded once, clutching his back with her small hands. For a vampire, someone supposed to be living dead, he was so warm and such a comfort to her in the chilly night with her white jacket lying on the ground somewhere behind her. “Do it,” she whispered when she felt him hesitate.

His tongue laved, hot and moist, on the side of her throat and prepared her for the pain. A moment later, she felt first the prick and then the scrape of his sharp fangs on the heated tender flesh over her pulsing jugular vein. Holding her small body closer and tighter to shelter her in his arms, his fingers tangled in her thick chocolate hair, and his sharp fangs stabbed into her.

As a human, this had been painful for her and only made better by the feeling of Zero’s warm arms around her like a castle.

Now, as a pureblood princess, the pain was as insignificant as an insect bite.

The actual feeding and bite, though, meant so much more now.

Kuran Yuuki had promised Kuran Kaname—her brother, lover, fiancé, and lately the man to betray her the very most—that she would feed on no one else’s blood but his, but it wasn’t a promise she could keep. It wasn’t that she, like Zero, was unable to stomach the blood tablets, it was just… _“The thirst of a vampire could only be completely quenched by the blood of the one they love…”_ Even when she drank from Kaname to the limits of his life, she was still thirsty. 

Kaname’s blood could not quench the longing inside her body.

Maybe it never would either.

But now, returning to the Cross Academy of her youth as a mere human girl and returning to the side of the only person she was ever able to completely trust, her thirst was even more acute with Zero only inches from her side most of the day or night. She wanted him. God, she wanted to drink from him so badly that her body felt like it was made of sand.

She slid her fingers into his soft silvery hair, holding his mouth close to her throat. Once, the sounds of him drinking had disturbed her a little bit, but now… she loved the sound. She could hear herself flowing into him, filling him, making him hers once again. “Zero,” she whispered. She knew he could feel the thrum of her voice in her throat through his fangs and spoke his name softly again. 

After what felt like only seconds, he pulled away roughly from her. He watched the blood continue to well on the wound and leaned forward to lick the punctures he had left closed so the bleeding would stop and she would heal, but the pureblood in her veins healed it in an instant. As if she had punched him, he pulled back from her. It was hated moments like this when he was reminded of what she had become, a pureblood vampire princess of the Kuran house, engaged to be married, not his anymore, not even his friend. Kuran Yuuki was his enemy now.

“Zero,” she whispered and it came out almost as a moan.

“No,” he said and his voice was cold as ice inside her heart once again.

“But—”

“No,” he repeated.

Then, in the darkness, he turned away and she heard the clink of the chains as he reached inside his jacket to grip his Bloody Rose gun for comfort. Well, maybe not for comfort anymore. Maybe he was considering blowing her to pieces with it. Either way, she did not flee from him. Instead, she stood and waited for him to say something, but Zero did not speak to the girl who had once been his best friend. He walked coldly and quickly away into the darkness.

**My fingers claw your skin, try to tear my way in  
You are the moon that breaks the night for which I have to howl  
My fingers claw your skin, try to tear my way in  
You are the moon that breaks the night for which I have to…**

Inside her new room in the Night Class Dorms, Kuran née Cross Yuuki stood at the window and looked out over the grounds of the academy where she had grown up under the watchful eye and guidance of Cross Kaien and with the friendship of Kiryuu Zero. Now, she felt so alone even knowing that all the vampires here would follow her every command and order, but they weren’t her friends. There was no one she could trust anymore. 

Even Yori-chan had been taken away from her.

Zero… Zero had been torn away.

And Kaname was gone.

Just gone…

She went into the small ensuite bathroom, sat down hard on the rim of the tub, and stared down at her bare feet. Since becoming a vampire, she had been different. She could go barefoot for hours without flinching or even getting cold. There wasn’t a shred of humanity left inside her body, she realized, and she hadn’t even tried to hang on to it—not like Zero had… was still trying to do. Even now, she had to order him to drink her blood when she would have thought he would be eager to drive his fangs into her hated body.

But no.

Yuuki night not ever be Yuuki again, but Zero was still Zero.

Even though she knew the other vampires would become restless at the scent of her blood (which was why she and Zero had gone so far out into the woods surrounding Cross Academy) she allowed her own fangs to crawl from her mouth. For a moment, she stared at her reflection in the mirror—at her blood-colored eyes, sharp fangs, and long chocolate princess-cut hair—and she hated it for the very first time. She lifted her wrist to her mouth and bit deeply, drinking in desperate hunger from her own veins to try to slake her thirst.

As always, no blood could sate her. 

She hungered for Zero’s blood, just like a beast. She wanted to taste his blood, to lick his beating heart, to feel his thick blood running down her forever-parched throat, to devour every inch of him until they were one in the same inside her body. She had never wanted that from Kaname.

She lowered her hand from her mouth, looking at her bloodstained lips. “What happened to me?” she whispered to her reflection

_I’m scared… the vampires will eat me…_

“What happened to the girl that was afraid of vampires?” she whispered.

But then, she had never once been afraid of Zero.

She wondered if he had ever feared her after she became… like this.

There was a sudden light knock on the door. “Yuuki-sama?”

“I’m alright,” she called. “It’s nothing.”

“Oh, alright.”

Then, Yuuki remained sitting on the rim of the claw-footed bathtub and watched as the pureblood in her veins healed the bite in her wrist as if it never was. She leaned in toward the mirror and examined the side of her throat for any trace that remained of Zero on her flesh, but there was nothing.

**Howl, howl  
Howl, howl**

Sometimes, Sayori Wakaba wondered why it was that Kiryuu Zero still remained in the Day Class’s dorms. She used to think he stayed because Yuuki was a human and he didn’t want to leave her side. Then, she thought it was because he hated vampires, but now… Everything had changed and he was still here. In everything that had changed—Yuuki, the Academy, even the sweet Headmaster—Zero was the only thing that remained constant.

He was still surly and rude, mean to a degree, and he wandered the halls late at night like someone lost and starving. He seemed almost like a small child, confused and hurt, aching inside like something broken beyond repair. Sometimes, when Yori watched him surreptitiously, she thought his eyes were red as if he had been crying, but that was silly…   
Wasn’t it?

Now, as she returned to her room after waking to go to the bathroom, she saw Zero come in from outside. He looked pale, but healthy at least and she figured he had found some fresh blood. Yuuki was back after all and Yori knew that Yuuki had supplied him with blood when she was still a human. Surely, she would do the same for him now, even if she was a vampire. In the past year, he had been living on animal blood, Headmaster Cross had told Yori sadly. (1) She passed him in the hallway without speaking, only glancing at him curiously, but her glance was not returned.

**Now there’s no holding back, I’m making to attack  
My blood is singing in your voice, I want to pour it out  
The saints can’t help me now, the ropes have been unbound  
I hunt for you with bloody feet across the hallowed ground**

Kiryuu Zero returned to his room after feeding on Yuuki’s sweet nostalgic blood, ignoring Wakaba Sayori when he passed her in the deserted hallway. Once inside his room, he slammed the door and leaned heavily against it, shaking himself roughly to clear his head. 

She wasn’t Yuuki anymore, he had to remind himself.

Cross Yuuki, his best friend, the girl he loved and who he once thought loved him, the one who cared for him when he was young and hurt and chased away his nightmares, who offered him her blood even while her heart screamed, _‘I’m afraid… scary vampires will eat me…’_

That Yuuki didn’t exist anymore. She had been eaten by Yuuki the vampire.

Yuuki was only the pureblood princess to him now, a person to work with for peace and if peace fell through, she was only a target to kill. She was in love with Kuran Kaname, her destined partner. What she had had with Zero in the distant-yet-oh-so-close past didn’t matter anymore. It may as well have not existed at all.

Everything between them was over.

Then why…?

Why was it only by drinking from her was he completely satisfied? Why did he feel whole now in a way he hadn’t since she had left a year ago? Why was the gaping hole that had been punched through his chest where his heart should be being healed and filled by her mere presence? Even though she wasn’t Cross Yuuki anymore, he still saw remnants of her living inside the vampire. And it made him both uncomfortable, sick, angry, but so very relieved and even… happy?

**Like some child possessed, the beast howls in my veins  
I want to find you, tear out all of your tenderness**

Cross Kaien sat silently at the mangled remains of his desk. He could still remember vividly the moment Zero had slammed his hands down on it and broken the surface right down the middle. Since then, it had been duck-taped, super-glued, and nailed. Yet Kaien hadn’t bothered to get a new desk since then since something always seemed to happen in this office that caused Zero’s unbridled rage to only break the desk once again. It just wasn’t worth the effort. Without Yuuki, Zero was like a ticking time bomb and as equally uncontrollable. Besides, Kaien was alright with the broken desk. There were so many memories in it after all—memories of a happier time when he had a daughter and a son.

Kaien sighed heavily and ran his hand over the broken seam in the wood. Yesterday, Zero had come in and hot-glued it so the glue bubbled up between the crevice like blood welling in a wound. When Kaien had said that to the vampire-hunter-turned-vampire, Zero had abruptly left the office. Kaien knew why, but he once again chose to pretend he didn’t.

Just like he had overlooked Yuuki and Zero’s antics a year ago when Yuuki had been forcing Zero to drink her blood to keep him from dying.

But now, with Kaname gone rogue for reasons unknown to everyone but him and Yuuki back in the Academy working towards peace between vampires and humans as he had, everything seemed at risk of breaking apart, even so close to center. Zero and Yuuki were distant, not enemies and not friends. 

Kaien was worried in a way he had never been worried before. 

Not since Kaname had brought him Yuuki, the little girl traumatized and unable to speak, and explained to him the death of their parents.

Not since a young Zero had been brought to his doorstep one cold night covered in blood and Kaien had been told that the boy had been bitten by the pureblood, the Madly Blooming Princess, Hiou Shizuka.

Not since Zero’s long-repressed vampire instincts reared their ugly heads and made him bite deeply into Yuuki’s neck and drink from her small fragile body in desperate starvation.

Not since one year ago, when Yuuki’s vampire blood had finally awakened, and the school came under attack from Kuran Rido.

No, Cross Kaien hadn’t been worried like this in a long time, but it was even worse now because… there was nothing he could do to help. This was between Yuuki and Zero, between Kaname and the other purebloods, between Yuuki and Kaname. There was no room for an adopted father to interfere, not this time.

**And howl, howl  
Howl, howl**

A few days passed between the sides of the school and the sides that had been taken inside it. 

Yori went to class like a good student, wrote home saying that everything was fine, and wondered how Yuuki was doing in her spare time. Zero patrolled at night and scowled at the Day Class girls during the day and banished his thoughts of Yuuki whenever they cropped up. Yuuki tried her best with the noble vampires, nibbled her fingertips for blood when she thought she could get away with it, and thirsted away for the blood that would finally quench her bone-dry throat. Chairman Cross only worried, lightly touching his mangled desk. Somewhere, who knew what Kaname was doing… 

Everything was coming apart at the seams, crashing down like a rock beaten on by the endless push and pull of the sea, like a delicately-built house of cards.

**Be careful of the curse that falls on young lovers  
Starts so soft and sweet and turns them to hunters  
Hunters, hunters, hunters  
Hunters, hunters, hunters**

Yuuki walked the grounds of the Academy at night alone, heading to the fountain at the center. There, like she used to when she was human, she plunged her head beneath the flow of cold water to clear away all her troubling thoughts. It might have worked then, when her concerns were only for Kaname-senpai and Zero, but it didn’t work anymore. Her mind was still swarming with a maelstrom of unpleasant thoughts.

The water only made her cold, droplets going beneath the jacket of her white Night Class uniform like a lover’s icy touch. She shuddered, clenching her teeth until she could imagine the taste of hot blood filling her mouth. Her thirst only grew though.

Gasping, she pulled her head back from the stream of water and stared at it, her mouth bone-dry. Finally, desperately, she cupped her hands and drank the water from the fountain. It was cold and tasted terrible from being out in the elements for so long, but she could taste the metal of countless coins tossed into the water and continued to drink. She imagined it was cold blood.

“You shouldn’t drink that.”

With a sharp intake of breath, she whirled to face Kurenai Maria. It seemed almost absurd that a vampire could look so thin and fair and innocent, the most human-looking among them, but Maria had proven herself to be quick in mind to make up for her failing body. Now, holding a lace parasol even though it was nighttime, she once again proved herself by approaching Yuuki without her knowing.

“Maria-san,” Yuuki said breathlessly and wiped her wet hands guiltily on her uniform.

Regarding the water of the fountain, Maria angled her head curiously. “Are you thirsty?” she asked finally. “You know you can drink from any one of us whenever you wish or need.”

Yuuki shook her head. “I’m alright.”

“Do I imagine that I smell your blood late at night, Yuuki-san?” Maria asked pointedly.

The pureblood princess looked sharply away. “It’s nothing.”

Maria approached Yuuki slowly, cautiously, until they were standing side by side next to the fountain. Silence stretched comfortably between them—Maria was the only one Yuuki could even begin to consider a friend. Considering that her frail body used to house Hiou Shizuka, the vampire who had tormented and bitten Zero, that was almost a little sad. Slowly, Maria ventured a hand beneath the cold flow of water and then glanced at Yuuki’s soaked hair.

“You thirst for his blood, don’t you? You’ve always been thirsty without it,” Maria said slowly.

Yuuki glanced at her. “Kaname,” she murmured. “Of course I do.”

Maria shook her head. “No… not him.”

Yuuki’s heart leaped into her throat, but she swallowed it. “What?”

“You’re thirsty for Zero-kun’s blood, aren’t you?”

She didn’t respond, staring into the water.

“I understand,” Maria said softly. “Sometimes, I want to drink from him too.” At Yuuki’s alarmed expression, she continued, “For Ichiru’s blood. I know that Ichiru is alive somewhere inside Zero-kun and I want that.”

“Maria-san,” Yuuki breathed.

Twirling her parasol, Maria shrugged lightly. “Do you require anything of me, Yuuki-san?”

Yuuki shook her head.

“I’ll be going back to my room then,” Maria said softly. Then, she turned and walked smoothly away, her pale hair swishing across her back and shoulders. Her shadow was so long and thin that her body appeared to be made out of twigs, but Maria was smart. There was no doubt in Yuuki’s mind that the girl knew far more than she let on. Possibly, she even knew that Yuuki was allowing Zero to once again feed on her blood—a forbidden act and great taboo in the vampire world—but Yuuki wasn’t afraid that Maria would give Zero up. Maria had loved once, she knew what it felt like to lose too. She was the closest thing Yuuki had to a friend anymore.

**The fabric of your flesh, pure as a wedding dress  
Until I wrap myself inside your arms, I cannot rest  
The saints can’t help me now, the ropes have been unbound  
I hunt for you with bloody feet across the hallowed ground**

He shone like moonlight above her, the pale silver light reflecting on his silver-white hair and beautiful amethyst eyes. His fangs were creeping from his mouth, bright white like slivers of the crescent moon from the week before were hung on his lips. His naked chest, muscles rippling beneath the porcelain ivory flesh, was so close to her face. She could have angled her chin and licked the sweat from his skin. Her hands coiled around his thin sides, cupping and holding him.

“Yuuki,” he gasped and her name was everything it needed to be again.

“Ah, Zero,” she murmured, clutching him close. 

His fangs scraped her throat and began to drink without permission. He was doing it just to taste her, just to absorb her into his body, just to make them whole again the way they once were. Then, even when he finished, his mouth and lips continued to suckle her sensitive throat and kiss her collarbones and pulse. Her body raged with blood and passion for him.

“Let’s do it now,” she breathed, the same words she had used days before to get him to drink her blood.

His hands traveled down her naked body to her very core and stroked her, his fingers delving into the wetness and heat between her thighs. She had been with Kaname, but it had never been like this. She had never felt like begging. She cried out, gasping his name in pleasure and desperation.

Then, his throat was against her lips, pressing. “Drink,” he whispered.

Eagerly, she opened her mouth, fangs growing immediately. Her tongue laved out to taste the texture of his skin, salted with the sweat of their love. Then, she opened her mouth, fangs scraping his flesh in delight. This was what she so desperately wanted!

There was a sharp bang on the door of Yuuki’s bedroom and she woke from her dream with a start. Disoriented, for a moment, she glanced around in search of Zero, but the room was empty of all except for her. She was alone in her bed, sweaty and hot and bothered.

“Yuuki-sama? Are you alright?” one of the vampires asked through the door. “I was passing by and heard some strange sounds.”

“I’m fine,” she called. “Thanks.”

“Okay, Yuuki-sama.”

Then, the hall was silent and she was really alone again.

She pressed a hand to her sweaty forehead. “That was one hell of a dream,” she murmured and stared at the darkened corners of the room as if Zero might be hiding there. “But who can control what they dream?” she whispered to the empty bedroom. “And dream I do…” (2) Then, rolling over in the twisted sheets of her bed, she tried to go back to sleep. Maybe, if she was lucky her dream would return to where it left off, but the rest of her night was dreamless.

**And howl**

In the stables, the area that had become his sanctuary, Zero was fawning over the bad-tempered white horse who liked no one but him though the Headmaster (and everyone else for that matter) didn’t understand why. White Lily feared vampires, like Yuuki, yet Zero became her exception, just like Yuuki. In a way, Zero supposed as he brushed the horse down in silence, Lily was not unlike Yuuki. Ha patted her strong neck, feeling the pulse of blood beneath her thick skin. 

“Good girl,” he murmured softly.

White Lily whickered in return, nuzzling his shoulder lightly.

There was a faint knock on the open door of the stable, a long feminine shadow tracing across the golden straw.

Zero turned, slowly, expecting it to be Yori. She often tracked him down to the stables for Headmaster Cross and ferried whatever messages someone wanted to give him. Tentatively, he could consider Yori a friend. “Yeah?” he asked the air behind him.

“Hey Zero.”

His heart skipped an unsteady beat. His throat and mouth turned into a parched desert just at the sound of her voice and he could suddenly smell the scent of her blood all over the air around him. White Lily pawed the straw nervously, making soft sounds in her throat and pushing on Zero with her nose. He didn’t understand what she wanted from him, what either of them wanted from him.

**Be careful of the curse that falls on young lovers  
Starts so soft and sweet and turns them to hunters**

Hissing, Zero asked, “What do you want, Yuuki?” He realized that even now, even as enemies, an honorific had not returned to her name nor did he coldly call her by the family name like he did with the other vampires. Deep in his aching chest, Yuuki was still Yuuki. “What?” he snapped again.

When she was human, she would not have fled from his mean voice and it didn’t send her running now. Instead, she stepped inside the stable, shut the door quietly, and closed the space between them. Her hands came to rest on his chest, White Lily’s nose pressing into his back to keep him from pulling away. Pinned between them, there was no escape for him.

“Zero,” Yuuki murmured. Her lips parted, damp and petal-pink and so beautiful, even her pearly-white fangs as they reached out for his blood. Did she really intend to forcefully drink from him… as he had once done to her?

His heart throbbed and he reached within his jacket to grip the Bloody Rose gun in his long fingers. “Back off, Yuuki,” he hissed at her.

She looked up into his face, her eyes burning the color of blood. “Please,” she murmured.

“Step back,” he repeated.

“Zero, I need this,” she whispered. “I need… you…”

He pulled the gun free and pressed it into her chest, but she still didn’t put space between them. She remained standing there, her hands pressed into his chest, her long hair billowing, her pulse racing in her thin beautiful throat. The bloodlust began to burn through his body as well, desperate. It suddenly felt like forever since he had drunk from her veins though only a few days had passed. He bit back his fangs, but they caught the corner of his mouth. He knew Yuuki saw the roll of fresh blood before his tongue snaked out to lick it away. Her bloody eyes blazed brighter with want.

Silence spread between them, each wanting to reach out and bury their fangs in the other, but neither moved. It was just like how it had been after they had rescued the school from Kuran Rido—a standoff between friends and enemies in the same breath. Then, he had pointed his gun at her earnest face and she had held her Artemis Rod at the ready to club him if he tried to kill her. They were both anomalies, vampires wielding anti-vampire weapons then, but Yuuki no longer carried her staff. Now, she had only the strength of a pureblood to stop him from pulling the trigger into her chest.

A long moment passed, longer and longer, spreading out like water. Neither moved, burning blood-colored eyes locked on each other. Occasionally, the blood at the corner of Zero’s wounded mouth welled up enough for him to lick it away. Then, his eyes would blaze brighter with greater thirst, but he still wouldn’t move to feed on her. Yuuki remained standing before him, both hands pressed to his chest so she could feel his heartbeat as it pumped the blood through his body. The Bloody Rose was pressed cold and hard between her breasts, dangerous, but she didn’t think he would shoot her now—not then, not now…

Suddenly, Zero pushed her away and turned back to face White Lily, pressing his hand to her soft muzzle. His back was to Yuuki, the Bloody Rose still hanging from his hand, but he still rusted her enough to give her his back. “Leave me alone, Yuuki,” he hissed back over his shoulder at her. “Leave me be.”

It was like so long ago, after she had discovered the vampire lurking inside his body, when she had offered him her blood and he had drank in desperation and then begged her to abandon him on the bathroom floor. Then, she wouldn’t leave him and she couldn’t leave him now. At least, not completely.

“Zero,” she murmured. “I… I’m always thirsty.”

“It’s because Kuran is gone,” he hissed.

She shook her head. “No… no…”

He glanced at her and their eyes met through the dim interior of the stable, both eyes still blazing the color of blood. He was haunted by her gaze then, by her bright vampire eyes, and she stared at him without blinking. Her expression was thin, but honest and he saw the old Yuuki that he needed and trusted with his whole being. She had been eaten by Yuuki the vampire, but she still lived inside this new Yuuki. Just like his own humanity survived inside his own body. Maybe… they were one in the same.

But even so, he turned Yuuki away from him and returned his affections to White Lily though the horse’s clear amber eyes watched him closely. Reflected in her eyes, he watched Yuuki bow her head in defeat and leave the stables, closing the door behind her as if to close off her heart as well. Zero licked the blood from the corner of his mouth, still tasting Yuuki’s blood inside his own.

**A man who’s pure of heart and says his prayers by night  
May still become a wolf when the autumn moon is bright**

Yuuki had been unable to convince Zero to let her feed from him. Neither though had he drank from her. The sight of his blood on his mouth had nearly driven her over the edge. How desperately she had wanted to lean up on her toes, lap the blood from his lips, and then kiss him deeply. She nearly had, but something in his eyes had stopped her.

She couldn’t be sure what was lurking inside Zero’s soul now, but she knew that if she fed from him, something would change between them—maybe for better, maybe for worse.  
That night, after she fell asleep, she dreamed of the night she discovered that Zero was a vampire. The feeling of his fangs sinking into her neck for the first time never left her, his arms going around her body tightly in a way that was both comforting and terrifying. She should have considered that night the ultimate betrayal, but she couldn’t even back then. Zero was still her best friend, her family, her most precious and trusted person. 

Like she had told Kaname, there was a part of her heart that would never be able to let him go.

…

Zero paced his room in the Headmaster’s wing from the small window to the sink in the corner, back and forth, back and forth. Occasionally, he lingered at the window and investigated the grounds for either signs of vampires out and about, hunting for fresh blood, or his own human charges of the Day Class wandering the grounds, hunting out the beautiful vampires, but all was as peaceful and quiet as it had been days ago when he had fed on Yuuki’s blood out in the dark woods.

His mind kept returning to today when she had sought him out in the stable. 

Her words echoed, like a broken record, over and over— _“Zero, I need this. I need… you…”_

He was a vampire hunter so he knew all about his blood-thirsty targets. He had heard that only the blood of a loved one can truly quench a vampire’s thirst, but he had never really believed it. Even when his thirst had been null for days after feeding on Yuuki’s sweet blood, even now when she was a vampire. 

_“I’m always thirsty…”_

_“It’s because Kuran is gone.”_

_“No… no…”_

What could that possibly mean? There was a time when he would have loved to think about what it could mean, that she might care for him more than that pureblood Kaname Kuran, but she was a vampire now and he was sworn to hate and kill her in the future, even if they found peace.

Suddenly, with a lurch in his chest, he realized that this same thing had happened before. She hadn’t know about his vampire blood inside his body, thinking him human, trusting him completely at her side, but the night his fangs erupted… He had betrayed her! Not only had he revealed himself to be a blood-sucking monster, but he had tested his new fangs on her soft neck. Yuuki had never hurt him when she became a vampire, not like he had done to her, yet she had never hated him. In his curse, she had become his ally. When her own struck without warning, he had made her his enemy.

“Bastard,” he whispered to himself.

That was what he surely was.

**If you could only see the beast you’ve made of me  
I held it in but now it seems you’ve set it running free  
The saints can’t help me now, the ropes have been unbound  
I hunt for you with bloody feet across the hallowed ground**

Yuuki closed herself tightly in the ensuite bathroom, drew a hot bath, and sank in deeply with a sigh. Once, she had always bathed like this after Zero bit her to relax her aching neck muscles and help herself heal faster, but now… Zero wouldn’t bite her and even if he did, the wounds healed in an instant. 

Now, after a long hard day of being made painfully aware of how things had changed, she took a bath purely for comfort. She wanted to remind herself of the time when she was human, when Zero was constantly at her side, when things were simpler. She missed the times when her only worries (though still large enough to lose sleep over) were about Zero and the vampire raging inside him and her feelings for Kaname-senpai.

Sighing, she sank up to her eyes in the water, blowing out a stream of bubbles.

Her fangs ached. She had been so close to Zero’s blood today that the mere thought made her fangs extend into the visage of Dracula, aching with thirst so badly that she had drunk the coppery water of the fountain outside the school. She clawed her wrist and sucked the slow trickle from her veins, but to did nothing. She needed Zero’s blood to stem the ache inside her throat. Whimpering, she got out of the pink-tinged bath and wrapped herself in a towel.

There was a knock on the door then, probably one of the other vampire checking on her because of the smell of her blood. She really needed to be more careful. “Yeah, I’m alright,” she called to the closed door, but it eased open on silent hinges and she didn’t see who entered because she was still closed tightly in the steamy bathroom. Sighing, she licked the wound on her wrist closed, unaware that she was no longer alone.

**X:Of:X:Howls:X:and:X:Drums:X**

(1) I know in the manga Zero suddenly is able to take the blood tablets after Yuuki leaves, but that never made sense to me for him to “suddenly” be able to stomach them, so I took some creative liberty. Animal blood… that does not make him a lame ass vegetarian vampire.

(2) “But who can decide what they dream? And dream I do…” is a line from Evanescence’s song, “Taking Over Me.”

This turned out to be a very strange song fic. Usually, I try to match the lyrics to what’s going on, but this time the lyrics just wound up separating the sections of the chapters. Oh well, just like so much for not starting something new.

I’m pleased with the way it turned out. Except could it have gotten any freaking longer?! I mean really? More than 6,500 words! (With another chapter still to go!) Give me a break!

Questions, comments, concerns?


	2. Drumming Beat

I do not own Florence and the Machine’s “Drumming Song.”

**X:Of:X:Howls:X:and:X:Drums:X**

Alone, Kuran Kaname sat in the darkness of the empty house. He stared at his long pale hands, stained with dried blood, wondering when the last time he had touched Yuuki’s soft skin had been. It felt like such a long time ago since he had seen her, drank from her sweet blood, and relished being inside her small body. Now, he was only alone, a pureblood without anyone to lead and that was the way he wanted it right now. He was doing things that weren’t allowed, least of all by sweet Yuuki.

Also, it was hard for him to be with Yuuki, knowing that some small part of her still belonged to the wretched low-level vampire-hunter-turned-vampire Kiryuu Zero. He knew that his own blood could never sustain her, never quench her thirst, never fulfill her body completely. Though he tried as hard as he could to be all that she needed, he knew the truth. He, alone, could never be enough for her.

Kaname sighed heavily and pushed his fingers through his thick dark hair, watching the pulse of blood in his wrist. 

He wanted to return to Cross Academy with his beloved Yuuki in his arms and help her corral the noble vampires. He wanted to work towards peace with Cross Kaien and needle that level-E, Kiryuu Zero. He wanted to hold Yuuki in his arms and encourage her to drink him to the limits of his life and lay in her bed with her. All these impossible things, he wanted them, but he had chosen a different path. He had chosen a path to walk alone… without Yuuki, without anyone. 

Sometimes, Kaname wondered if he should have made the same choice that Zero had so long ago—to stay at Yuuki’s side even if he didn’t know what he was or what he was going to do—but Kaname hadn’t made that choice. Now, he was alone on his path and Zero was home at Cross Academy with his precious Yuuki. As hapless and doomed for death as the low-level vampire was, at least he had Yuuki. Kaname was alone.

**There’s a drumming noise inside my head**  
That starts when you’re around  
I swear that you could hear it  
It makes such and almighty sound 

Yori carefully eased the door to her best friend’s room open, praying that the hinges didn’t creak and they didn’t. She peeked inside the room, but it was dark and quiet. There was light filtering beneath the door of the ensuite bathroom. Yuuki was in her bathroom, maybe taking a bath because Yori didn’t hear water running.

Earlier, when she had knocked, Yuuki had called out, “Yeah, I’m alright,” though Yori wasn’t sure why. All she knew was that she was tired of never getting to see Yuuki and talk to her like they used to. She was fed up and she was going to talk to her friend. She took a deep breath to settle her nerves and pushed into the room when a cool hand landed on her shoulder and pulled her back. A shriek of surprise and fear escaped her mouth.

If she was lucky, it was Zero on patrol and he would drag her ass back to her bedroom in the Day Class dormitories.

If she was unlucky, it was a vampire that fully intended to bite her and drink her blood.

“You shouldn’t be here,” a soft feminine voice said silkily. Gently, Yori was pulled backwards out of Yuuki’s room by the back of her shirt, a long thin graceful arm reach past her, grasped the knob, and pulled the bedroom door quietly shut. “You’re a human, aren’t you?”

Yori stared into the face of the vampire who had caught her red-handed breaking into her best friend’s bedroom. Kurenai Maria—she had replaced Souen Ruka in the eyes of the Day Class boys since she was so sweet and fair whereas Ruka wouldn’t even give anyone outside the Night Class the time of day. Yori was one of the few who had been allowed to know the truth about the Night Class after Kuran Rido’s attack on the academy and she spent a moment just staring into the girl’s silvery eyes. She hadn’t been around any vampires other than, Kuran Kaname, Zero, and Yuuki.

“M-Maria-san,” Yori gasped out, fear catching her voice in her throat.

Maria smiled lightly, showing delicate fangs. “Hello. Sayori-san, right? You’re Yuuki-san’s friend?”

Yori nodded. “Yeah. I was hoping to see her,” she confessed.

“It’s dangerous here,” Maria murmured. “You know the truth about the Night Class, don’t you?”

“I do,” Yori whispered and twisted some caramel-colored hair around her finger nervously.

“Yet you still came here,” Maria said with a moonlit smile. “You are very brave.”

Yori smiled uneasily. “About Yuuki-chan…”

“You should go back to your own dorms. I will tell Yuuki-san when I see her that you were looking for her.”

“Really?” Yori asked suspiciously. She had been led down that path before and Yuuki had never come to see her. She was beginning to think that the vampires were purposefully ignoring Yori’s attempts to see her friend. Either that or Zero was stopping Yuuki from coming, but she didn’t think Zero was behind it. Even if he was, Zero couldn’t stop Yuuki once she set her mind to something.

Maria smiled, recognizing the expression in Yori’s face. “I promise you, Sayori-san.” Then, guiding the other girl lightly, she led Yori away from Yuuki’s room and outside into the night. “Go on,” she said to Yori. “I will tell her.”

“Thanks, Maria-san,” Yori said and then scurried off into the shadows.

Maria leaned absently against the doorway of the entrance to the Night Class dorms, waiting because she could smell his blood on the faint breeze. Her long hair fluttered against her cheeks and she gently pulled the bun from her hair and let all the tendrils drift down to frame her face. She ran her fingers through the freed tresses. Eventually, from the shadows of the forest surrounding Cross Academy, he emerged.

**There’s a drumming noise inside my head**  
That throws me to the ground  
I swear that you could hear it  
It makes such an almighty sound 

Zero saw Kurenai Maria waiting at the entrance of the Night Class dorms, her pale hair billowing. It was at moments like this he could almost understand the allure the vampires had to the human boys in the Academy, but all he could see was Hiou Shizuka, the pureblood who had slaughtered his family, tormented and loved his twin, and wrecked his life, even in the girl’s weak body.

“Hello, Zero-kun,” Maria sad when he was within ear-shot.

“What are you doing out here?” he demanded harshly, lips pulling back.

She smiled despite that. “I just turned away Yuuki-san’s friend, Sayori-san,” she said.

Zero’s amethyst eyes widened. Someone had snuck out of the Day Class dorms and he hadn’t noticed! “What?”

Maria grinned, showing her sharp fangs. “That girl smells delicious,” she murmured.

He reached into his jacket, fingers wrapping around the Bloody Rose.

“Don’t worry, Zero-kun,” Maria said, smiling. “I didn’t.”

He released his grip on the gun, watching her.

“What are you doing here, Zero-kun?”

“None of your business.”

Maria laughed lightly. “Ah, alright then,” she murmured and turned, going back into the Night Class dormitory with a swish of her pale hair. Again, Zero was reminded of Hiou Shizuka and her moon-pale body wrapped in white clothing, stained with his family’s blood, but he shook those thoughts away. This was not the time to dwell on the bad things that had happened in his past. His future was what was causing the most problems now… and Yuuki… There was always Yuuki.

**Louder than sirens,**  
Louder than bells,  
Sweeter than Heaven,  
And hotter than Hell 

Wrapped tightly in her towel, Yuuki stood at the window, looking out at the empty courtyard below. A moment ago, she thought she had seen Yori-chan leaving, but that was crazy. Then, she saw Maria standing there, wrapped in moonlight, pulling down her pale hair and just enjoying the night’s cool air.

Groaning, Yuuki tossed herself down on her bed and buried her face in her pillow. 

Her throat was tight with thirst.

To distract herself, she got up and opened the window to let in the cool breeze. Immediately, Zero’s scent engulfed her and her mouth watered, fangs creeping down. She leaned out the sill, looking around for the source of the lovely scent. She licked her lips eagerly, pricking her tongue on her extended fangs.

Maria was flouncing her way back into the dormitory, smiling. 

Yuuki could see Zero’s long shadow standing beside the entrance. 

His silvery head lifted up towards her, his pale eyes flashing in the moonlight, and Yuuki slammed herself back into the room. She grabbed the window, closed it tightly, and yanked the curtains over it, hiding. She pressed both hands over her racing heart, breathing heavy. 

Zero had almost seen her!

Dear God, she thought. Was that such a bad thing? 

She wanted him more than anything yet she was now afraid to meet his eyes. She clutched her towel up over her breasts, shivering in the chill of her room. Then, there was a knock on the door and she didn’t know whether she wanted it to be Maria or Zero. Her heart thundered and her throat ran dry.

**I ran to a tower where the church bells chime**  
I hoped that they would clear my mind  
They left a ringing in my ears  
But that drum’s still beating, loud and clear 

Zero had caught a glimpse of Yuuki in her window like fairytale’s Rapunzel. Her dark hair hung around her waist, streaming over her bare shoulders, as long and as sleek as watered silk. She was wearing only a white towel wrapped tightly around her torso, the swell of her cream-colored breasts pressing over the top of the towel. The moment she laid eyes on him, she snatched herself back into her room, slammed the window, and pulled the curtains over it.

Maria giggled. “Are you coming?”

It was tempting to say ‘No’ and return to his own bedroom in the Academy, forgetting that he had ever planned on seeing Yuuki, but he couldn’t because Maria was looking at him with those pale eyes of hers. He took a step back, gripping the Bloody Rose for comfort.

“Well?” she asked.

He lowered his hand to his side, the chains attached to Bloody Rose clinking absently as he released the anti-vampire weapon, nodded, and followed her into the dormitory of the Night Class. Maria didn’t even bat an eyelash when she heard the Bloody Rose hidden inside his jacket. The door closed behind them with a bang and the scent of vampires and blood tablets assaulted Zero’s senses, twisted with the lingering scent of Yori’s human body.

“Yuuki’s room it right down the hall, third door on the left,” Maria told him, gesturing with a smile. “Good luck, Zero-kun.”

He glared at her fiercely. 

“Goodnight, Zero-kun,” she said with a smile. 

Then, she skipped away down the dark deserted hallway, pale hair swishing across her narrow back and thin shoulders. Her twig-like shadow darted ahead of her down the hall, framed with pale moonlight. Hiou Shizuka had once inhabited that frail body, Zero recalled, but pushed the thought away. Kurenai Maria and Hiou Shizuka were two different people and Shizuka was already dead. He had to let that go. He had bigger problems at hand.

**Louder than sirens,**  
Louder than bells,  
Sweeter than Heaven,  
And hotter than Hell 

There was a knock on Yuuki’s bedroom door. She knew it was him by the way her mouth ran dry, her heart began to race, and her nipples contracted. Her old friend, her new enemy, her adopted brother, and so much more—Zero—was standing on the other side of the closed door. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, no sound coming out save a small strangled gasp. Even so, she watched the knob turn anyway and the door swung easily and silently open.

With a cautiousness he used to always have around her, Zero closed the door behind himself and then leaned against it heavily, just watching her. Yuuki nervously clutched the towel tightly above her breasts, trying to remember how to breathe without making them swell. What was she supposed to think of Zero seeking her out, of him coming to her room late at night, of the way he was just staring at her with his burning eyes? After all, he had practically shoved her away in the stables earlier.

“Zero,” she tried to whisper, but no sound came out of her desperately dry mouth.

He took a step towards her until they were close enough that she could feel the heat coming off his body. 

Goosebumps rose on her skin, prickling, and she took a step back to keep him from touching her. She had no idea what to do now. 

There was a time when Zero said that she owned him, body and soul and life. Once, in the panic of her awakening, she had tried to strangle him in the midst of her hallucinations, but he hadn’t even struggled against her. But now, she couldn’t even touch him. So much had changed, so much was different and she found that all she wanted was the past to return.

She cleared her throat and spoke, “Zero.”

His eyes met hers. “I… I’m sorry,” he said finally.

Her heart skipped a beat. 

“I realized… this is wrong.”

Yuuki gazed at him, her chest heaving for breath. 

“When I became a vampire, you never once condemned me…”

Yuuki didn’t let him finish. Instead, she closed the space between them, flung her arms around his neck, tangled her fingers in his silvery hair, and pressed her mouth to the side of his throat. It was now or never, she decided. Surprisingly, Zero angled his head to give her better access and felt her fangs scrape along his throat. A shudder went through his body, his arms encircling her small body and holding her close. Then, her fangs pierced and she sucked in a desperate mouthful of his thick hot blood.

A moan escaped her.

Zero dug his fingers through her thick hair, pressing her closer and burying his face in the side of her throat. He could practically taste the pulse of her blood beneath the thin white flesh of her neck and his lips feathered along the ridge of her collarbone. Then, he licked the pulse of her throat, tasting her very body.

Her mouth still locked on him, she moaned, “Do it.”

Zero’s fangs weren’t hesitant at all now and dug into her eagerly almost like he was having his revenge on her, gulping her blood. Like that, twisted within each other’s embrace, the two fed off each other in a state of happy desperation, each drinking the other to the limits of their life, but it hardly mattered since they were both drinking at the same time.  
What felt like hours past, but it must have been mere minutes.

**Louder than sirens,**  
Louder than bells,  
Sweeter than Heaven,  
And hotter than Hell 

Yuuki’s emotions filled his head, swirling in a maelstrom that was impossible to understand, transferred in her blood. She was starving, starving like he used to in the old days, but not because she hadn’t been feeding like he had but because her thirst was unquenchable. No one could even take the edge off her thirst. Even while she was still drinking, the thirst consumed her, haunted her, drove her mad.

Pureblood’s thirst could only be quenched by the blood of the one they loved.

Through her blood, he realized that even drinking Kaname to the limits of his life could do nothing to help her. Even when his blood was pouring down her throat, it wasn’t enough. She ate enough blood tablets to sink a ship, but still… it did nothing. 

Now, pouring into him because she was drinking from his throat while he drank from her, he finally felt that desperate thirst begin to recede as she drank his blood.

…

Their twin heartbeats drummed loudly inside the cage of their ribs, pressed chest to chest as they were, louder than anything either of them had ever heard. It was like the steady sound of bells, the crash of cymbals, the steady thrum of sirens in the distance. It was as if they fed off each other and echoed. It was like a sign that they were always meant to have been together like this. 

Since they day they had met, Zero had been able to hear the drumming of her heart inside her chest, filing up his head as the years went on and the vampire in him began to take over. There was a time he would have been willing to do anything to make the tempting sound of her bloody heartbeat go away, but now… he could have drowned in it. He didn’t want it ever to stop.

Yuuki could feel the pulse of Zero’s heart against her breasts, so strong and deep, racing though. Feeling it like that was so intimate that she could feel the heat coursing through her entire body already, pooling in her belly and contracting her nipples. She had always loved his heartbeat, feeling it in the pulse of blood at his throat or in his chest when he held her to feed. She wanted to taste his heart.

…

Zero’s emotions swirled through her in unnamable snippets. 

She sensed relief, care, guilt, rage, hatred, thirst, love in a fleeting flash, fear, pain, sorrow, a deep ache, tenderness… it was endless. Zero’s emotions were so bottled up inside him that Yuuki couldn’t even taste them all. She wondered what he tasted in her blood as it filled his mouth. His heartbeat pounded against her breasts.

Did he know now that Kaname could do nothing to alleviate her pain?

Did he know about her dreams of him?

Did he know everything?

Yuuki gasped in pleasure as the hot blood poured into her mouth. Then, even when she stopped desperately drinking and just savored each drop, she didn’t want the moment to end. She wanted to drink from Zero endlessly until he lived inside her like Ichiru lived inside him. Her tongue pressed against his neck, licking and lavishing attention like a kiss until a soft sound escaped him.

**Louder than sirens,**  
Louder than bells,  
Sweeter than Heaven,  
And hotter than Hell 

Maria Kurenai, despite all appearances of returning to her own room, had not. Instead, she as standing in the hallway outside Kuran Yuuki’s bedroom, leaning on the wall lightly. Soon, the other vampires would be drawn to the alluring scent of both the pureblood princess’s blood and the scent of the hunter, Kiryuu Zero. Maria wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop someone who wanted to beat their way through her to get into the room, but she could easily stand in the hallway and assure everyone that everything was okay.  
And she planned to do just that.

She knew how Yuuki felt and she wanted to do what she could to mend the things that had happened in Cross Academy since Kuran Yuuki’s sudden awakening. That was how Kaname-sama would have wanted it. Besides, she liked Yuuki-san and figured any little thing she could do would someday be worth it. Yuuki was the closest thing to a friend Maria had ever had, being a weak vampire like she was. Maria smiled in the darkness of the hallway, her fangs gleaming at the scent of Ichiru’s blood still lingering inside Zero’s.

As I move my feet towards your body  
I can hear this beat, it fills my head up   
And gets louder and louder  
It fills my head up and gets louder and louder

They pulled away simultaneously, licking lips of the last vestiges of spilled blood. Yuuki watched her own deep bite on Zero’s throat heal over and she felt his eyes on the mirrored one on her own throat. He didn’t have to feel guilty about leaving a mark on her anymore. She was stronger now.

“Yuuki,” he murmured, but didn’t say anything other than that.

She wiped her mouth self-consciously. “Thank you, Zero,” she whispered.

He nodded slightly, barely even perceivable in the darkness of her room. Then, though she wasn’t sure what exactly she had expected him to do next, he turned away from her, opened the door, and left without another word. Alone, Yuuki stood staring at the place where he had last been standing. She went to the threshold of the door and looked down the hall at his retreating back, clad in that white shirt so that he looked almost like a ghost’s floating torso and pale head.

Standing just beside the open door, Kurenai Maria looked equally surprised. For a moment, the two girls stared at each other, neither comprehending why the other was there. Then, like Zero, without a word, Maria walked away. 

Yuuki closed the door.

**I run to the river and dive straight in  
I pray that the water will drown out the din  
But as the water fills my mouth  
It couldn’t wash the echoes out  
But as the water fill my mouth  
It couldn’t wash the echoes out**

As promised, the next day, there was a knock on Wakaba Sayori’s door. Since night had fallen outside the window and the Day Class was locked safely in their dormitory and she could see Zero patrolling outside from her window, she eagerly pulled open the door and immediately smiled at her best friend. “Yuuki-chan finally,” she gasped. “Maria-san told you?”

Yuuki smiled and nodded. “She did.”

“Thank her for me,” Yori said. 

“I will,” Yuuki assured her.

“Well, come in, come in!” Yori said eagerly and pulled her friend inside the room. Then, she hugged her tightly. For a moment, she didn’t even think about Yuuki the vampire and how Yuuki’s face was pushed into the side of her throat, but either way, Yori was as unafraid of Yuuki as Yuuki had been unafraid of Zero so long ago. “How are you?” Yori asked, pulling back. Surprisingly, there was no trace of bloodlust or fangs on her friend and she smiled even wider. “Yuuki-chan?”

“Actually, Yori-chan, I really need to talk. There’s just so much going on right now…”

Yori plopped down on the bed, put a pillow behind her back to settle in, pulled a bag of chocolates from her desk drawer, and put it between them. When Yuuki didn’t immediately sit, Yori patted the space beside her and grinned. “What are friends for, Yuuki-chan? Talk to me. Have a chocolate.” 

Smiling, Yuuki sat down beside her friend, took a chocolate, and popped it into her mouth. After a moment of pure enjoyment, she turned to Yori and began to tell her everything that had transpired in the past year. It was fantastic just to unload all her thoughts and worries. It was even better to have Yori sitting beside her, crying when she cried, laughing with her, smiling, and asking questions Yuuki hadn’t even thought of. When the last year of her life had been rehashed and Yori told Yuuki about Zero, Chairman Cross, and the Academy in the past year, they sat together in silence, eating chocolate.

“Hey, Yuuki-chan?” Yori asked.

“Hmm?”

“What about Kaname-san?”

“I don’t know Yori-chan.”

A moment of hesitation chewed at Yori. Then, having nothing to lose, she asked, “If you were afraid of vampires, how come you didn’t fear Zero-kun when you found out about him?”

Yuuki glanced at Yori with a sigh. She had asked herself that a thousand times. “I don’t know. Because Zero is Zero. I know he would never intentionally hurt me.”

“But…” Yori continued, “then why was it, back when you were human, you were afraid of Kaname-san’s fangs? He’d never hurt you either. He loves you.”

Yuuki’s heart skipped a beat. It was so true. Though she had never once feared Zero or his blood-colored eyes as he fed on her, she had feared just the mention of Kaname’s fangs. Could it have been because his fangs would change her very being while Zero’s just took her blood? But, no…

_I’m afraid… that vampires will eat me…_

Not once had she feared Zero, the one who had bitten her when his impulses came out, but she feared the sight of Kaname’s fangs yet he was the one who had saved her and never once hurt her. Why? That didn’t even make sense. Shaking her head, she had no answer for Yori.

“I’ve got to go,” Yuuki said suddenly.

Yori grabbed her hand. “Promise you’ll come back to see me,” she begged. “If Zero-kun won’t let you into the dormitory, I’ll talk to him. I’ll get the headmaster to talk to him.”

Yuuki smiled. “Zero will let me in to see you, don’t worry. I’ll come back tomorrow, I promise.”

Yori nodded and then let Yuuki go. In the gleaming white Night Class uniform, Yuuki’s body looked small and strange. She was like a small angel, wingless, but still glowing. She was beautiful save that long dark hair covering her back like a dark cloak. Suddenly, Yori called after her, “Yuuki-chan! You should cut your hair, it doesn’t suit you!”

Yuuki’s heart skipped a beat, but she turned and wave and smiled at Yori without saying anything. Then, she was safely out among the darkness and the stars again. She could smell Zero’s scent, fresh and all around, surely watching to make sure she didn’t lose it and hurt someone even though his concern was unnecessary. Even though she couldn’t see him, she knew he was there, somewhere. He was always around her, even if he wasn’t at her side.

**I swallow the sound and it swallows me whole  
Till there’s nothing left inside my soul  
As empty as that beating drum  
But the sound had just begun**

Zero walked past Yori’s room, smelling for blood, but everything was alright. Yuuki would never hurt her friend and she would never hurt him either. As if sensing his presence, Yori opened the door of her room and peered out at him with those caramel-colored eyes.

“Zero-kun?” she asked, surprised. “What are you doing?”

“Just checking,” he growled at her.

She was unperturbed. “You thought Yuuki-chan might have hurt me, didn’t you?”

He betrayed himself by looking guiltily away.

Yori sighed. “You’re the only one who can’t see that Yuuki-chan is the same Yuuki she’s always been. It’s just that the chemistry of her blood has changed and she wears the Night Class’s uniform now. She still cares about me and the headmaster and about you—”

He jolted.

“—though I’m beginning to wonder why she even bothers with you,” Yori grumbled, glaring at him from beneath her bangs. “I think you’re a lost cause, Mr. Surly Mood. If I were her, I’d have given up on you a long time ago, but Yuuki-chan still cares.”

“Yuuki still cares about me?” Zero whispered.

Yori glared at him as if to say, ‘You are so incredibly stupid that it isn’t even funny anymore.’ But then she took a deep breath to keep herself from actually saying that and nodded instead. “Yes, she does,” Yuuki’s best friend told him. “You’re lucky, Zero-kun.”

He glanced down the hall at the darkness. “I know,” he whispered.

Yori shook her head at him, said, “I’m going to bed,” and closed her door.

Zero remained in the hall a moment longer, thinking about what Yori had told him. Then, he swallowed down the taste of Yuuki’s blood that still lingered in his mouth from yesterday, still able to taste the swirl of her emotions. Beneath the desperate thirst, was that her tenderness and care for him that he could still feel? Yori was right—he was lucky. Yuuki should have given up on him long ago. She should have given up the moment he pointed his Bloody Rose at her that first time, but she hadn’t. Yuuki still cared and he was lucky.

**As I move my feet towards your body  
I can hear this beat, it fills my head up  
And gets louder and louder  
It fills my head up and gets louder and louder**

Zero had never cared much about what people thought about him. He kept his emotions to himself, let them glean from that what they will, and if they managed to figure him out, well, then, that was their problem. The only person ever able to read him with shocking ease was Yuuki, though she had always somehow overlooked his feelings for her. Not even his twin, Ichiru, had known what he was thinking when they were children. Zero preferred to keep to himself under any and all circumstances. In his experience, depending on someone else only got you hurt and let down. 

Now, he was faced with a problem and he had no one to turn to. At face value, it was simple—he wanted to talk with Yuuki, in private—but that’s where the simplicity ended. 

If he went to Yuuki’s room in the Night Class’s dormitory, all the vampires would know.

If he brought her here to his room in the Headmaster’s wing, Kaien would know.

If he tried to return to his old room in the Day Class dormitory, same.

If he borrowed Yori’s room in the dorms, then Yori would know.

He was effectively trapped between a rock and a hard place.

Now, pacing his room, he tried to figure out some way to get Yuuki alone so they could talk. He supposed he could drag her out into the deep woods, but it was dark and cool and rain was threatening with thick heavy storm clouds in the east. It promised to be a torrential downpour both tonight and tomorrow until at least lunch. If he dragged her out in the rain and got her sick, Kaien would have his head. That left him with only one option.

He had to ask someone for help and the someone who won out—for sheer ability to be the best at giving Zero what he wanted—was Cross Kaien.

…

Zero entered the office without knocking and caught the chairman in the act of lovingly stroking the damaged surface of his desk. Zero eyed the swells of dried hot-glue and the ugly crack right down the center of the desk. Not for the first time, he found himself saying, “We could get you a new desk.”

Kaien shook his head. “What can I do for you, Zero-kun?”

“Yuuki and I have something we need to do,” Zero began. He had never been one to mince words, especially when he was lying. “She told me that the Level-E’s might be organizing to try to attack the school again. If we could make a preemptive strike, we could stop another attack on the Academy before it begins.”

Kaien eyed him. “Why you and Yuuki-chan?”

Shit.

“Yuuki’s a pureblood,” Zero said quickly. “I can kill them, but I can’t get any information out of them. If Yuuki comes with me, we’ll be able to find out some information about the attack they’re planning—who’s leading it and why.”

Kaien nodded slowly. “I understand. How long will it take you to get there?”

“At least one day’s travel. One day there, on day to deal with the Level-E’s, and one days back—three days total.” Zero wanted to give them enough time to talk, but not enough time that if it turned ugly, they would have time to kill each other. Plus he had to keep it plausible. An overnight trip was out of the question.

Kaien nodded again. “Alright. You tell her and you can leave tomorrow.”

Zero repressed his smile. “Thanks, Chairman.”

**There’s a drumming noise inside my head  
That starts when you’re around  
I swear that you could hear it  
It makes such an almighty sound**

Yuuki stood in front of the mirror in her ensuite bathroom, staring at her reflection and holding the fistfuls of long hair in her hands. Kaname had asked her not to cut it, along with feeding only on his blood despite how long he was gone from her side. Yori had said the long hair didn’t suit her and Yuuki agreed, but she had been keeping it long for Kaname, because he liked it. But now… Kaname was gone. Why shouldn’t she cut it all off into the short style she so liked?

She lifted the scissors from the vanity and studied the gleaming blades in the light. She put a single strand through the blades and snipped it off, watching the long strand slide to the floor at her feet. Then, she glanced at her reflection, envisioning the short hair framing her face once again. Emboldened, she grasped a fistful of hair and cut it short around her shoulders. For the first time in a long time, she smiled at her reflection. She liked her short hair. It reminded her of her happy human times.

But the cut was ragged and choppy and it was obvious that she had cut it herself in front of a mirror in a great fury. So, Yuuki walked down the hall to Maria’s room, knocked, and the vampire answered in her pale violet silk pajamas, rubbing her eyes. 

“Yuuki-san?” Maria asked and then spied her short hair. “What is it?”

Yuuki couldn’t help her smile. “Can you help me?”

“What happened?”

“I cut it, but it looks…”

“Bad,” Mari supplied.

Yuuki grimaced. “Yeah. Will you help me?”

“I cut my own hair,” Maria said by way of an answer.

Yuuki smiled at her warmly.

“Just let me get my scissors. It looks like you cut it with garden sheers,” Maria said lightly and then giggled. 

For a pureblooded princess, sometimes Yuuki was so undeniably human. It was invigorating to be around her youth and excitement and Maria saw why Kaname desperately wanted to keep her by his side. She also saw why Zero was loathe to mark her as a vampire enemy and outright kill her. There was still a part of Yuuki that was so vibrantly human that it ached in Maria’s hollow chest. She had never known humanity and she was jealous of Yuuki for that. She wanted to know what it was to fear death and not live forever. She wanted to know all those things that Yuuki knew.

**Louder than sirens,  
Louder than bells,  
Sweeter than Heaven,  
And hotter than Hell**

When Zero told Yuuki about the Level-E’s forming a coup, she knew immediately that he was lying to her, but she didn’t call him out on it and she had no idea why. For some reason, she wanted to go with him and be alone with him. She wanted to hear what he had to say and she wanted to drink from him again. She wanted all these things, so she just went along with it. It never even crossed her mind that he might be planning to kill her instead, as he promised he would someday. Of all the things she had tasted in his blood, murderous intent had not been one of them.

So, without further ado, she packed her bag and left with him the very next day.

The train ride lasted all day and was taken in complete silence between the pair. The only sound was the heavy grey rain beating on the train windows and roof like the pounding beat of a drum. Thunder crashed and lightning blazed outside the fogged windows. It really was awful weather and horrible silence. It made Zero painfully aware of how things had changed between them. Once, the hours would have been filled with Yuuki’s happy chatter, even if he didn’t speak himself. Just being together was normally enough—it used to be enough for them, for him, for her…

But now, Zero sat against the aisle, glaring at everyone, while Yuuki sat against the window, staring at the scenery in silence.

They arrived at the hotel late and it was still raining. Zero shouldered his bag, checked them in, accepted the woman behind the low counter’s glare with one of his own, took Yuuki’s bag as well, and led her upstairs. She followed him without speaking, until they got into the hotel room, that was.

“Zero, you haven’t said a word to me and I know there’s no coup of Level-E’s,” she said coldly and folded her arms over her small chest. “What is going on?”

Zero pulled back the suspicious decorative comforters and then the clean sheets on both beds, ignoring her. He could feel her fuming behind him, but he had no idea what he was going to say to try to explain himself so he just kept quiet. After a moment, Yuuki shoved him aside, told him tersely that she was going to shower, and slammed herself inside the bathroom. Zero let out a sigh of relief and sat down on the bed, trying to think of what he’d say to her when she came out of the bathroom. 

Well, he liked her new short hair. It reminded him so much of the old days—so much that it almost hurt.

…

Yuuki scrubbed her fingers through her hair angrily. The nerve of that Zero, not only lying to her but still not telling her what he wanted or had planned. And she wanted to know—damn it!—she had waited long enough! She shut off the water, got out of the shower, and dried off. It was then that she realized that she hadn’t grabbed clean clothes. Sure, she could put her dirty ones back on, but she was so nice and clean and her clothes were damp from the rain. She glanced woefully at the short hotel towel and then at the door.

The phrase ‘the lesser of two evils’ had never fit a situation better.

Hugging the short towel to her chest, she stepped back out into the hotel room. “Zero! Don’t look,” she snapped at him. 

Like anyone, the words ‘don’t look’ immediately made his head turn to look indeed. She was about to shriek at him when she saw the lustful loving haze come over his beautiful amethyst eyes. Kaname had never once looked at her like that—like she was a beautiful and radiant creature to be worshiped and coddled. Zero, on the other hand, looked as if he wanted to take every inch of her body into his mouth and kiss her to death.

“Zero,” she breathed, fingers whitening around the top of the towel. This only hitched it up higher and exposed more of her creamy thighs even if it did hide the swell of her breasts.

Zero’s pale eyes darted and she saw the blood-color blooming in the depths of his eyes. The sight of her half-naked both aroused him and made him thirst for her. She took a step towards him as if drawn by an invisible string. When she was within his reach, he reached out and enveloped her in his long strong arms. Immediately, his mouth found her throat, his tongue eagerly tracing her pulse in a path of wet heat that made Yuuki shudder in his arms. 

“Zero,” she gasped, angling her head to give him more access. 

But he didn’t sink his fangs into her throat. Instead, his lips burned a path down her throat and across her collarbones, until his mouth found the swell of her breast and the hammering pulse of blood there over her heart. His fingers experimentally pulled down the back of her towel, trying to expose a little more of her breast.

“May I?” he breathed. 

The towel slid from her fingers, just barely hiding her nipples, and Zero’s tongue lavished attention on the pulse of her breast. Her nipples contracted at the heat of his mouth, desperate for his touch. Finally, his fangs pierced her flesh and he drank eagerly. A single drop of blood trailed down between her breasts and Zero’s tongue followed it, lapping at her tender flesh and then returning to the bite to drink more. The amount of heated arousal in her blood nearly knocked him off his feet and he was suddenly grateful to be sitting down. His pants were achingly tight.

His hand cupped her pert buttocks, lifting her gently so that she came even closer to him, pressing his face into her breasts. One hands sneaked beneath the towel, cupping the bared flesh of her behind and kneading it gently. One finger brushed between her thighs innocently, feeling the hot wetness of her desire there, and she gasped out his name in pleasure. Her blood raged with eager passion and he felt her nipples like small pebbles pressing against his chest even through the towel between them.

“Zero,” she moaned out-loud, clutching his soft silver hair.

He pulled away, licking his lips of her blood. “Yuuki,” he murmured.

Then, their eyes met and this moment ceased to be what it was. A hot flush heated Yuuki’s cheeks and Zero turned his eyes away. He returned his hands to his lap and she pulled the towel up over her breasts and down over her thighs. They stared at each other, thinking about what had happened between them. Meeting each other’s eyes, this stopped being just a passionate tryst. It became something more, something they thought about, something they could come to regret.

“I should… get dressed,” Yuuki whispered.

Zero stared at the expanse of creamy flesh. “Yeah,” he murmured.

But she didn’t move and he didn’t look away. 

Her heart was pounding in her chest, louder and louder until it completely filled up her head. The way Zero was staring at her, she had a feeling that he could not only hear her heartbeat, but see the life-giving organ beating away inside the cage of her ribs. She could see the dark pulse of blood in his throat, hammering also.

Zero was just staring at her, his mouth watering and his body lusty for something other than her sweet blood. Her naked body, wrapped only in a scrape of short white cotton towel, was so beautiful. Her breasts swelled over the top of the clenched fabric and he recalled how that innocent flesh had tasted as he drank from above her heart.

“Zero,” she whispered.

His fangs were still extended from lust, but his eyes no longer glowed the color of blood. As he licked his lips, one fangs nicked the corner of his mouth once again and his blood welled up. Yuuki decided to hell with it and this time, she pressed her mouth eagerly to his. Kissing him deeply, she pressed him back into the mattress. She licked the seam of his soft lips, lapping up his blood, and Zero welcomed her into his mouth, sucking her in.

“Stop,” he gasped suddenly, pushing her back. “What about Kuran?” The moment the words were out of his out, he regretted them.

Yuuki sat back, her legs folded beneath her. “What about him?”

But he had already stuck his foot in his mouth and he couldn’t take it back. “You are fiancées, aren’t you?” he asked and then stated flatly, “You can’t just sleep with me.”

Yuuki stared at him a moment, stood up, took some fresh clothes from her bag, and returned to the bathroom. When she emerged, she was wearing her favorite cotton pajamas and laid down on the second bed with her back to Zero. “Goodnight,” she said coldly.

“Night…” he whispered. Never had his heart felt so broken in his chest, not even when she had left him one year ago or when he had drank the essence of his twin into himself. Yuuki had been kissing him, loving him, and he had tasted her feelings in her blood yet he still couldn’t just let it be. He just had to screw it up. He always screwed up everything.

**Louder than sirens,  
Louder than bells,  
Sweeter than Heaven,  
And hotter than Hell**

The next day crawled by in thick tension. Yuuki lay in the other bed in her pajamas, watching television or reading, while Zero went out hunting Level-E’s in the area even though it was raining. He returned that night shivering cold and soaked to his bones. He took a hot shower, hoping to chase the chill from his body, but to no avail. Clenching his teeth to keep them from chattering, he came back into the room and lay down on the empty bed, burrowing under the blankets. There, he lay, shivering with fever and aching cold.

Yuuki couldn’t help it. Even though she was impossibly hurt by what had happened between them the night before—how he had held her nearly naked and soft against him and then mention Kaname and pushed her away—she still cared about Zero. Watching him lying in the other bed, pale and shuddering, she just couldn’t help it.

She got up from the bed and touched his forehead. He was burning up with fever, shivering, teeth chattering.

“That’s what you get for being out in the rain all day,” she murmured to him.

His amethyst eyes eased open, hazy with fever. “Yuuki, I’m sorry,” he whispered.

She hushed him, got a wet towel from the bathroom, and bathed his forehead with the cold cloth. Sitting at his side, it was almost like it had been in the past. Yuuki was the only one who could take care of Zero, who he allowed to take care of her, who he in turn tended to. 

“Yuuki,” he whispered.

“You should rest.”

“I’m sorry,” he repeated.

“Just rest, Zero. I’ll be here,” she murmured, patting his hand.

His fingers tightened, unwilling to let her go. “Please,” he begged.

“Zero,” she said softly.

“Please…”

Yuuki sat down on the edge of the bed with a sigh, stroking his cold hand gently. “What is it, Zero?”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered again.

“I forgive you,” she said because he clearly wasn’t going to stop. The fever was making him delirious and desperate and she found it best to just go along when these sorts of things happened. If Zero remembered what he said in his fever the next day, he would try to pretend it had never happened. 

“And… I love you,” he murmured, beautiful amethyst eyes fluttering closed.

Yuuki’s heart throbbed in her chest. “W-what?”

But Zero had fallen asleep and didn’t respond.

Yuuki remained sitting there on the edge of the bed, stunned, for a long moment and still holding his hand tightly between her own. His fingers were clenched around hers and he wouldn’t let go, even in his feverish sleep. Finally, Yuuki lay down beside him, tucking herself under the covers with him and warming his body from the side. Zero murmured softly, curled up on his side, and nuzzled against her breasts like a small child. She just held him tightly until his fever broke in the middle of the night. Then, she returned to her own bed and slept like a log.

**As I move my feet towards your body  
I can hear this beat, it fills my head up  
And gets louder and louder  
It fills my head up and gets louder and louder**

The next two days had been hell, tense and quiet between two old friends. The only time they had even touched was when Zero had offered Yuuki his throat and allowed her to drink from him since he had drunk from her. But now, they were both safely home at Cross Academy. Yuuki was in Kaien’s office, studying the scarred surface of his age-old desk. It looked like Zero had been applying his handiwork to fixing it, but the desk was still beaten up.

“How was the trip?” Cross Kaien asked his adopted daughter. “Did you stop the Level-E’s?”

“Yes,” Yuuki said softly.

“Everything’s alright between you and Zero-kun then? I haven’t seen him since you got back.”

“We’re fine,” she said. 

But truthfully Yuuki hadn’t seen Zero either. She hadn’t even spoken with him. Apparently, he remembered what he had said in his fever-induced haze and he had been avoiding her for the past few days, not to say that she hadn’t been doing the same thing to him. Neither of them knew quite what to think of his sudden confessed revelation or their passionate kiss or the feelings that swirled in each other’s eagerly drunk blood. 

“Is that so?” Kaien asked, narrowing his eyes behind his glasses.

Yuuki nodded, tucking some short coffee-colored hair behind her ear. “Yes, it is,” she said, but she wasn’t really certain that it was the truth at this point. She had to talk to Zero and to do that, she had to find him first.

“I like your hair, Yuuki-chan,” her father said suddenly, smiling.

She fingered the short strands. “Thank you,” she said. “I like it, too.”

He didn’t ask her about Kaname and she didn’t offer anything.

**X:Of:X:Howls:X:and:X:Drums:X**

Well, so much for this being a two-shot. (Plus this chapter is even longer than the first one! Over 8,000 words this time!) It escaped me and I’ll probably write one more chapter with Florence and the Machine’s “Cosmic Love” to finish up. In case you haven’t noticed, this is kind of an epic conglomeration of Florence’s wonderful songs. 

Does everyone notice all my honorifics? I always put effort into them when they’re around. I think it makes the story really deep.

Questions, comments, concerns?

Review!


	3. Cosmic Love

I do not own Florence and the Machine’s song, “Cosmic Love.”

**X:Of:X:Howls:X:and:X:Drums:X**

It wasn’t hard to find Zero, especially since he was still under the weather from his Level-E-hunting trek through the storm. Yuuki put her nose to the cool breeze and followed the scent of his blood, his body, and his bones. She found him in the stables, lying in the straw at White Lily’s feet. The horse was standing over him, just watching like a gentle dog. Yuuki didn’t want to risk spooking the horse with her vampire scent and have her trample Zero, so she sat down outside the stable and waited patiently.

Ever since she had become a pureblood vampire, time was nothing to her. Impatience was a thing of the past—probably because she was going to live for eternity…

But Zero… he was a human-turned-vampire. Someday, he would become a Level-E and he would die. Zero only had precious little time left.

Tears burned in her eyes and throat, but she tried to choke them back. There was a stone in her throat, hot and heavy, and she just couldn’t allow herself to cry. What did she have to cry about? She would live forever. When Zero finally died and… if Kaname never returned… then she would be alone for all eternity. Her heart throbbed, shattering and breaking inside the cage of her white ribs. A single tear trailed down her face, dripped off her chin, and soaked into the knees of her thigh-high stockings.

After that, it was like a damn breaking. She couldn’t stop crying for everything that had gone to heartbreakingly wrong in her life. 

Zero had been consumed by the vampire urges, ridden with self-retribution and self-hatred for the beast living inside his skin. Then, she had lost Zero when she became a vampire and then, just a few days ago, he had confessed that he loved her. What was she supposed to think of them anymore? Were they enemies, friends, lovers, blood-buddies, adoptive siblings, or nothing at all? On top of that, Kaname was gone from her life for who knew how long. She would be alone for eternity.

A ragged sob escaped her throat, rattling in her chest like something broken.

…

Zero woke from his nap to the scent of tears. White Lily was pushing at him with her soft nose. Figuring that the scent of tears was only that of some Day Class girl searching for a quiet place to let her feelings out, he rolled over in the straw and tried to go back to sleep, but White Lily nosed him again. When he still didn’t stir, she dug her hoof into his back painfully.

“Ow, damn, White Lily,” he groaned. “Stop it.”

But the horse didn’t stop. She lowered her head, took the back of his jacket between her teeth, and lifted him off the stable’s earthen floor like a mother cat to her tiny kitten. Zero hung there, limp, until she set him down on his knees in the straw again.

“What?” he demanded of her and then fell a little silly. He was talking to a horse, after all. This not-being-friends-with-anyone thing and being away from Yuuki was really starting to eat him from the inside out. He cleared his throat, embarrassed. 

White Lily nudged him again, practically pushing him out of her stall.

“Alright, alright,” he grunted and brushed himself off. He glanced around, but didn’t immediately see anyone. Then, his keen vampire senses caught not only the sounds of faint sobbing, but also the strong scent of saline tears. Whoever was crying was very close and probably not one of the Day Class students since classes were still in session at this time of day. That and both these were coming from a familiar heartbeat that immediately filled his head like a drum. “Yuuki,” he breathed.

White Lily nickered softly and tossed her head as if urging him on, but Zero hesitated at the threshold of the stable door. 

What was he supposed to say to Yuuki since he had confessed his utmost secret to her in a fever-induced haze? How was he supposed to ever point his Bloody Rose gun at her again while knowing that she knew the feelings in his heart? How was he supposed to deal with this situation now? After all, he was just a teenager without any friends. He had been alone since Yuuki left him, not that he had done much to make her stay.

**A falling star fell from your heart  
And landed in my eyes  
I screamed aloud as it tore through them  
And no it’s left me blind**

Yuuki sensed Zero’s presence behind her, hesitating in the door. His heart was racing and she could feel his uncertainty. She could still read him like an open book, just like she had back when they were younger. Suddenly, it was like no time had ever passed between them, but then she heard the clink of the chains on his Bloody Rose and knew that this past year hadn’t just been a bad dream.

“Hey Zero,” she murmured and quickly wiped the tears from her face. “I wanted to talk to you.”

He stepped out of the shadows, his long shadow stretching out across the grass alongside Yuuki’s small bent one. “Why were you crying, Yuuki?” he asked suddenly. When she turned her head to look up at him, she was surprised to see that Bloody Rose was not in his hands.

A small bitter laugh escaped her mouth. “Oh, it’s nothing.”

Zero shifted from foot to foot beside her. Then, as abruptly as if he’d fallen, he sat down beside her, keeping about a foot of space between their bodies. Even so, Yuuki could feel the heat rolling off his body in waves. The desire to lean into him was overwhelming, but she fought it back. “Tell me,” he said coldly, trying to keep the fact that he cared out of his voice. He needed Yuuki to think of him as her enemy again, not the boy she had grown up with who had confessed his heart to her two days ago.

She sighed heavily, opened her mouth, closed it, and then shook her head.

“Tell me,” he repeated.

“Okay, Zero,” she said, a smile pulling the corner of her lips. “If I tell you, then you have to tell me something.”

The fine hairs on the back of his neck rose. “No,” he snapped immediately. 

She smirked. “You don’t even know what I was going to ask. It could have been whether or not you wanted blood…”

His amethyst eyes blazed with a ribbon of crimson and he closed them quickly, turning away, but she had already seen the lust in his eyes. She giggled softly as his expense and then reclined against the rough wall of the stable.

“It’s up to you,” she said softly.

He glanced at her, fangs peeking out over his lips. “What?” he demanded of her.

Yuuki sighed at him, tears caught in her throat like rocks. “You want to know and then you’ll answer my question?”

He nodded swiftly, once, and then looked away.

“I was just thinking about how with Kaname gone and you being… a human-turned-vampire with short time… After everything that’s happened, I’m going to be alone for eternity,” she whispered, throat closing over. A single tear rolled down her cheek and a small sob escaped her. 

Zero stared at the profile of her face, his eyes widening and his fangs shrinking back within the shelter of his mouth with shock. “Yuuki,” he breathed. 

Not once had he thought about her life as a pureblood. She would live forever unless someone cut off her head or stabbed her in the heart—eternity, endless—and alone. It was worse than his short fate or if Kaname managed to get himself quickly killed by the Vampire Counsel or the Hunter Association. They would be dead and think nothing of those left behind, but Yuuki would be left lingering. It would be worse than torture in the flames of Hell, especially for Yuuki who loved and cared for and needed everyone in her life. She would never survive eternity on her own—never!

She glanced at him, eyes clouded with tears. “It’s stupid, right?”

He leaned closer to her. “Yuuki,” he breathed.

She stared at him, their eyes meeting and holding. She couldn’t look away and she didn’t want to either. “Zero,” she murmured.

He pressed his lips to hers and wrapped his arms around her in one smooth movement, as if he had been practicing it in his dreams forever. Yuuki was immediately enveloped in the warmth of his strong body, her hands pressing to his chest, her mouth opening to welcome his tongue inside. He pressed her against the wall of the stable, his fingers threading through her short hair and pulling her closer. Yuuki wrapped both arms around him, hugging him desperately against her. 

How long had it been since she had been held and touched? It was aching under her skin.

She wasn’t exactly sure when she started crying.

Zero’s hot tongue slipped into her mouth, exploring and touching her teeth experimentally as if in search of her fangs. Why though? He knew she was a vampire, she had drunk from his neck only a short while ago. Yuuki pressed back hard, battling him for dominance. But suddenly, Zero pulled away and she felt his fingers on her face. Then, he was pulling his dusty white sleeve down over his palm and wiping her cheeks with it. She pushed him away, pressing her hands to her face and immediately felt the tears there. Then, she saw the shine of wetness on his lips.

“Why now?” he whispered to her.

She sobbed a little. “It’s been so long,” she whispered.

“Kuran?” he asked, kicking himself once again. 

Yuuki stared at him, fresh tears welling in her brown eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly.

“Kaname and I…”

Suddenly, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know how things were between the pureblood fiancées. What if things were perfect between them? What if she just wanted Zero to fill the void left behind by Kaname’s leaving? But then he thought of the desperate thirst in her blood, unquenchable, by Kaname and how the thirst had ebbed while she was drinking from his veins.

“It was never like this with Kaname. We were just going through the motions…”

He cradled her in his arms.

“Now, Zero, it’s your turn,” she whispered into his chest. Her fingers traced small circles on his chest. “What you said in your fever… was it true?”

His heart thudded hideously inside the cage of his chest. He wanted so badly to lie to her. He was supposed to hate her! She was a vampire, god damn it! But then again… so was he and she had never once condemned him while he had hated her with all the passion in his body. It wasn’t right to lie to her anymore.

“Was it?” she whispered again.

Then, slowly, he nodded. “It was.”

“You love me?” she whispered.

Zero didn’t answer. Instead, he only fiercely kissed her as if he wanted to devour every inch of her soul into his body. Yuuki’s hands pawed his body eagerly. She untucked his white shirt from his trousers, slid her hands beneath the fabric, and stroked the bared flesh. Then, without hesitation, she reached into his pants and squeezed his heated flesh. His length was long and silky-smooth, heaven in her hand, and she stroked him easily. Zero gasped into her mouth.

“Let’s go in the stable,” he panted out. 

She pulled her hand away, shoved open the doors, pushed him inside, and he closed them. Then, they were once again all over each other. She cupped him eagerly through his pants, stroking him with the added friction of the rough cloth. Zero cupped her ass, pulling her so close that her hand was crushed between their bodies. Beneath her skirt, he cupped her hot sex and stroked her little pearl with his thumb. She grew soaked against his hand, seeping through her thin cotton panties. 

His jaw ached, fangs extending, and it had nothing to do with blood. He wanted to completely and wholly devour Yuuki like he had Ichiru. He wanted her to live inside his body. Suddenly, the stable doors opened and they flew apart as if shot. 

Zero’s teacher, Yagari Touga, entered and studied them a moment. “Zero, I need to speak with you,” he said plainly, his single eye a painful reminder of Zero’s once-naïve young heart. Then, without another word, he saddled up his horse, led the mare out of the stable, and left the two vampires to straighten out their clothes and hair in embarrassed silence.

“Zero,” Yuuki began.

“Forget it,” he said. Then, he grabbed his discarded school jacket from the stable floor, slung it over his shoulder, and left after his sensei. 

Yuuki stared at his back and then glanced at White Lily. The horse pawed the straw at her feet, nickered softly as if to tell Yuuki something, but—like Zero—Yuuki didn’t understand what the moody white horse wanted from her. She left the stable also, but the area outside was deserted of both Yagari-sensei and Zero.

**The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out  
You left me in the dark  
No dawn, no day, I’m always in this twilight  
In the shadow of your heart**

“What is it?” Zero asked his teacher, averting his eyes from the patch Yagari wore over his missing eye. He hated to be reminded of how he used to be just like Yuuki—naïve, thinking that the Level-E’s could be saved with kindness and care, hopeful and gentle. “Sensei?”

“Kaien and I have to leave tonight,” the vampire hunter said plainly. Yagari had never been one to mince words. When he had first returned to Zero’s life, he had let the young and newly-turned vampire know exactly how he felt by shooting him in the shoulder. 

“Leave? Why?” Zero asked.

“Because the association wants to talk to us about Kuran Yuuki and Kuran Kaname.” Yagari paused, regarding his old student. “What’s with you and the little pureblood princess?”

Zero glared at his teacher, narrowing his amethyst eyes. “Nothing,” he ground out.

“Sure,” Yagari said. Then, he mounted up on the horse. “So, it’s up to you and Yuuki-san to keep watch on the school while we’re gone. I don’t want anything to happen to the chairman’s cute students.”

“I’ll keep watch,” Zero assured him. 

“Good,” Yagari said. “And Zero, don’t do anything stupid.”

As a vampire, Zero would never have thought of baring his fangs at his teacher and esteemed vampire-hunter, but now, despite knowing how stupid it was, he really really wanted to. Instead, he just glared at his sensei, turned, and walked away back towards the school.

**And in the dark, I can hear your heartbeat  
I tried to find the sound  
But then, it stopped and I was in the darkness  
So darkness I became**

Yuuki was sitting on Yori’s bed once again. Yori, though exhausted, was being a good sport about Yuuki’s late arrival to visit. She couldn’t really blame her friend—Yuuki was a vampire now after all—a creature of the night. Yuuki flopped backwards on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

“Yori-chan… what do you think of Zero?” she asked.

“Zero-kun,” she yawned. “I don’t know. He’s so grouchy all the time. I don’t see what you see in him, Yuuki-chan.”

Yuuki sighed. “He’s just… Zero is Zero. He’s important to me and I don’t know what I’d do without him. He’s always been there for me.”

“Except when you became a vampire,” Yori supplied.

Yuuki slid her eyes to her friend. “He told me he loved me, Yori-chan.”

Yori sat up, the exhaustion leaving her face immediately. “What?”

Yuuki nodded. “Yeah. He had a fever and in his delirium, he told me that he loved me.”

“I think it’s the truth, Yuuki-chan,” Yori said. 

“I don’t know.” Yuuki twisted some short hair around her finger. 

“What about Kaname-san?”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever see Kaname again,” Yuuki confessed. “I might have to survive this eternity alone…”

Yori met her friend’s eyes. “You could make me a vampire, Yuuki-chan. I’ll always be here for you.”

Yuuki almost laughed bitterly. “Yori-chan,” she murmured. “I would never make you a vampire. Sometimes, I wish I wasn’t a vampire.”

“I understand,” Yori said, “but what about Zero? He’ll live forever with you, won’t he?”

Yuuki shook her head. “He used to be human. Someday, he’ll fall to Level-E…”

“But you’re a pureblood, can’t you keep the madness back?”

“I don’t know how long it will last, Yori-chan.”

Yori laid her hand on Yuuki’s shoulder. “Then, maybe you should make it last as long as you can… Live like you were dying, so to speak.”

“Yeah,” Yuuki whispered. “So what should I do?”

Yori smiled at her friend, showing her white human teeth. “I think you should try to talk to Zero-kun, and Yuuki-chan, the headmaster is gone for the night.” There was an inscrutable expression in Yori’s caramel eyes, a little twinkle of mischief.

…

Zero had his towel and clean pajamas gathered up in his arms. He had just finished patrolling the grounds of Cross Academy—everything was dark and quiet, painted with silvery moonlight, so that it looked like something that belonged in a fantasy world. He had chased two Day Class girls back to their dorms, glared down Kurenai Maria as best he could until she returned inside the Night Class dormitory, and finally returned back to his room in the Chairman’s wing of the school. 

He had collapsed on his bed, exhausted, but found himself unable to sleep. He kept thinking about Yuuki’s hot wet sex against his palm through her panties, her mouth on his, their bodies pressed chest to chest in desperate arousal. His pants were tight, but he couldn’t get rid of it. Instead, he decided a hot shower was exactly what he needed to calm his nerves and his body. That was when he headed down the hallway to the bathroom, the lock still broken like it had been when Yuuki was still a human girl.

He sighed, stripped out of his clothes, and stepped beneath the stream of heated water. The tension melted from his shoulders, soothing his aches and exhaustion. He filled his mouth with water, trying to take away some of his thirst, but to no avail.

Also to no avail, the awakening in his groin didn’t relax either. Sighing, he leaned his head into the cold wall of the shower stall, wrapped his nimble fingers around his shaft, and began to stroke himself. All the while, he kept thinking of Yuuki’s small warm hands on him in the stables earlier that day. 

God, she had felt so good.

A moan escaped his mouth, echoing against the walls of the bathroom. He bit down on his lower lip hard to stifle any sounds that dared escaped, and continued with his ministrations until his climax rocked him. It wasn’t as fulfilling as usual, but it was enough. He shut off the water, toweled off, and dressed in his favorite fresh cotton pajamas, a gift from Yuuki a few Christmases ago. Outside the door, her figure momentarily obscured by a waft of steam, Yuuki was waiting for him.

**The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out  
You left me in the dark  
No dawn, no day, I’m always in this twilight  
In the shadow of your heart**

For a moment, Zero just stared at her. She was wearing her Night Class uniform and her hair was short and her eyes gleamed with the faint red of bloodlust, but she was beautiful—god, she was so beautiful that he could hardly hold himself back. It didn’t even matter that he had just taken care of himself in the shower. 

“Yuuki,” he murmured, mouth going dry.

She smiled, baring her small white fangs. “Hey Zero.”

“What are you doing here?” he demanded hastily to cover the heat creeping up his neck and burning in his ears.

“I came to talk to you,” she said slowly, folding her hands in front of her.

“You should be watching the vampires,” he snapped.

“They’re alright,” she said patiently. “Maria-san will signal me if something happens.”

“And you trust her?” he demanded.

“I do,” she murmured.

Zero pushed past her. “What do you want, Yuuki?”

She stopped him with a hand on his arm and smiled seductively. “I wanted to pick up where we left off, Zero.” 

The blood immediately surged down to his groin and left his brain starving for it. He just stood there, staring at her, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water as his brain desperately tried to reinstate some form of control. “What?” was all his brilliant brain managed to croak out even after several moments of struggling.

She smiled, wrapped her arms around him, and pressed her body tightly against his. “Please,” she whispered and kissed his throat. “Zero.” 

He felt the scrape of her fangs on his soft flesh and shuddered, his arms automatically wrapping around her body out of some strange habit. He angled his head even though he didn’t want her to bite him and she didn’t dig into his throat with her fangs. Instead, her tongue lavished attention on his pulse and then suckled the flesh lightly. She pushed her fingers through his silver hair, nails scraping his scalp lightly and sending a shiver of pleasure through is body. In that moment, there was no way he could have possibly denied her.

After all, this was something he had desperately wanted for years.

“Yuuki,” he gasped.

“Please,” she whispered again.

He couldn’t speak. Instead, he only nodded. 

“Let’s go to your room,” she whispered, licking his earlobe. 

Again, he simply nodded, unable to speak.

Yuuki took his hand and started to pull him down the hallway towards Zero’s bedroom. He couldn’t wait though—his head was filled with the pulse of her heartbeat, the scent of her body, pounding with his own arousal. Instead, he scooped her up in his arms, cradled her against his chest, and carried her the rest of the way to his bedroom. He somehow opened the door, kicked it closed, lay Yuuki down on the bed, and pressed himself over her. He sought out her mouth, pushing his tongue past her teeth and tangling eagerly with hers. 

Yuuki wasn’t shy at all. First, she pulled open his button-down top, sending the buttons flying like shards of the moon or falling stars. Then, deftly and quickly, she cupped him through his pajamas. She reached into his pants, gripped him firmly, and began to stroke him, relishing the small sounds that escaped him.

Zero’s hands ran down her body, cupping her breasts through her uniform and kneading them gently. Then, hastily, he pulled her jacket off her shoulders and her skin looked like pale cream in comparison to the black blouse she wore. His mouth found her collarbones, nipped to draw a drop of blood, and licked it eagerly up. He could taste her pleasure, her desire, and her desperation in her blood. “May I?” he whispered into the valley of her breasts.

“Yes,” she moaned.

Zero pulled open her blouse, the balck buttons flying across the room to mingle on the floor with his own silvery ones, and pushed up her bra. Eagerly, his mouth descended on her breasts, licking and kissing her nipples. Yuuki threaded her fingers through his thick hair, pressing him closer the same way she did when he drank her blood. His hands wandered to where his mouth was not, gently stroking her through her panties. Again, he breathed, “May I?” into her skin.

“You don’t have to ask, Zero,” Yuuki told him breathlessly. “It’s… it’s not my first time.”

He sat up abruptly, amethyst eyes widening. “It’s not…?” 

Then, he felt like a moron. She had been living with Kaname for a year and they had been fiancées since they were children. Of course she had slept with the pureblood. And then, his mind flooded with insecurities. If it wasn’t her first time, she had something to compare him too. She could find him lacking. She could find fault in his actions, in his touches, in his kiss. She could compare him to Kaname and he knew exactly who would come out on top in that comparison. It wouldn’t be him, he knew that.

“Zero,” she began, but he pulled away from her. 

He pulled his pajama shirt closed and forced a few buttons through the holes, keeping his bare cream-colored flesh effectively hidden from her gaze. Then, he folded his hands in his lap and stared at them, eyes shifting away from her. She rose on her knees, the blouse slipping from her shoulders, and she paused to unhook her bra—though she thought better of that a moment later and covered her exposed breasts with her discarded black blouse. Yuuki gently cupped his face and tried to kiss him.

“Yuuki, stop…” he said, pushing her back with one hand.

“Zero, are you okay?” she whispered and caught his hand between her own. Lightly, she stroked his pale knuckles. “Is it your first time, Zero?”

His heart leaped into his throat and he swallowed thickly, hunching his shoulders inside his shirt the way he always did when some secret aching fault of his was picked out. He looked as if he wanted the bed or the floor to swallow him up. Even in the familiar confines of his dark bedroom, he suddenly felt out of place and hunted.

Zero was still a virgin and Yuuki wasn’t. 

She had never thought it would be like that.

Yuuki could read that painful expression on his face like an open page, just like she used to. He was afraid and he was also hurt because Yuuki had already been with Kaname. She could judge him and find him lacking. She would know Zero in the most intimate way. She leaned her head against the side of his throat, bare shoulders pressing against his. 

“To be honest, Zero, I like that…” she confessed finally.

“You what?” he choked.

“That was what I hated about being with Kaname,” she confessed shyly. Then, she steeled herself to tell him everything. “He knew so much more than me. He always made it so amazing for me, but I felt as if no matter what I did… I wouldn’t be able to return the favor. He was always so far ahead of me. I’ll never be able to catch up with him and honestly… I’m not sure I want to.”

Hesitantly, Zero drew her into his arms. “I… I’ll enjoy anything you do to me,” he whispered.

She smiled at him, eyes sparkling with unshed tears. “I know.”

**I took the stars from my eyes and then I made a map  
And knew that somehow, I could find my way back  
Then I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness, too  
So I stayed in the darkness with you**

Zero’s arms were wrapped around her like a castle, warm and safe. The scent of his skin was heaven, the feeling of his silky hair feathering against her face, his strong hands gripping her to him, and his hot breath on her throat. He was everything she had ever wanted—compassionate and burning with passion. When Kaname had made love to her, he had always been almost distant, bringing her pleasure, but he never held her and treasured her the way Zero was doing right now.

Yuuki pressed herself against him, releasing her hold on her black blouse and unbuttoning Zero’s white pajama top. Their bare flesh pressed close. They could feel each other’s heartbeats through the pale heated flesh. Her tongue lavished on his throat, relishing the texture of his skin, and she felt Zero’s fangs scrape the lobe of her ear, sending a shudder of pleasure through her body. Zero cupped her breasts and then ran his hands down her body to her aching sex.

“Zero,” she moaned and lightly pushed him away. She rolled his body over on the bed, hovering over him, and kissed the pulse in his throat. “Can I drink?” she asked.

“Yes,” he breathed, threading his fingers through her short chocolate hair.

Her fangs pierced into him, but she only drank a little bit, just enough to taste what he desired in his blood. She had always wanted to try it with Kaname, but he had been unwilling to allow her any control when they were together. Zero, lying beneath her like a porcelain doll, would let her own every inch of his body and never complain. Once she knew exactly how he liked to be touched, how he had touched himself earlier and was still achingly sensitive, she descended upon him.

Her hot mouth burned a path down his chest, slithering his cotton pajama pants down his lean legs. Zero lifted his hips to make things easier for her, but watched her surreptitiously, wondering what she was going to do. A shiver of anticipation ran through his body. She licked her lips, making sure her fangs had safely retracted. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him. Then, she opened her mouth and engulfed the sensitive head of him. 

The soft cry that escaped him and the way his fingers clutched her hair made her lips curve in a smile. Even though she wasn’t sure what she as doing as Kaname had never let her touch him, she had Zero’s feelings in her blood to guide her. She began bobbing her head at a slow teasing pace, licking him from base to tip and taking as much of him into her mouth as she could. She nearly gagged, but persevered, swallowing so that the muscles of her throat clenched around him.

“Y-Yuuki, stop,” he gasped and pulled her away. 

“What?” she asked.

He panted for breath, drawing her mouth to his and kissing her desperately. “If you keep going… I’m going to—” he broke off, blushing.

Yuuki smiled against him, slipping her skirt down her legs and straddling him in only her panties. “I want you to, Zero,” she whispered.

His hands cupped her buttocks, kneading the flesh softly and pulling her forward to rub against his throbbing erection. She arched her back, whimpering at the friction of her soaked panties against her swollen clit. She wanted him inside her, to feel him touching her, to be filled to the brim with her best friend. 

“Zero,” she gasped.

He hooked one finger in her panties, rolled her onto her back so that he could hover above her in return, and stripped her of her last article of clothing. Both of them naked, they pressed together a moment, relishing that closeness. Then, she wrapped her legs around Zero’s slim hips and arched her back so that the head of his length bumped her wet heated folds. He groaned, fingers fisting in the pale sheets. Yuuki captured him with one hand and tried to sheath him inside her, but he hesitated. 

“What about… protection?” he asked, blushing.

She smiled and pulled him in for a kiss. “It’s alright,” she whispered. Then, she produced the condom Yori had given her from the pocket of her discarded skirt. “I have some.”

“Why do you?” he asked, eyeing her.

Now it was Yuuki’s turn to blush. “I just do,” she said shortly.

They stared at each other a moment as Yuuki’s nimble fingers tore the foil and pressed the little latex product into his hand. Zero sat back, resting on his knees, and lightly rolled it over himself, his fingers lingering on the sensitive flesh. Yuuki stared at him in all his glory, smiling faintly, and he suddenly wondered how he measured up as compared to Kuran, but he didn’t dare ask her. 

She threaded her fingers through his hair, pulled him to her, and kissed him deeply. “Please, Zero, I want you,” she whispered into his lips.

“Okay,” he murmured. Then, he kissed a path to her throat and she angled her head for him. Like she had done, he just drank a little from her, just enough to know what she wanted and what she liked carried through in the passion of her blood. He kissed the healing punctures, the crimson immediately leaving his eyes. “Okay.”

Then, gently, he parted her folds, stroked her wetness over the head of himself, and sheathed inside her in one sharp thrust. She moaned, throwing her head back and clawing at his back in pleasure. The feeling of her hot body encasing him with virginal tightness was everything Zero had ever dreamed it would be. Yuuki shifted beneath him, rolling her hips to that she could feel every thick inch of him inside her, filling her to the brim so that there wasn’t even a centimeter left for herself left inside her small body.

He gasped her name and she kissed him, swallowing every sound. For a moment, he just rested inside her, feeling the utter completeness that he hadn’t felt since she had left him one year ago. Then, throat tight, he began to move inside her to hide the feelings bubbling to the surface. Each thrust sent a soft cry from her mouth, but he swallowed the sounds. Being with Yuuki was everything he had ever wanted and when he dipped his head to once again taste her blood, he felt how much she wanted him too.

**The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out  
You left me in the dark  
No dawn, no day, I’m always in this twilight  
In the shadow of your heart**

Since it was Zero’s first time, she wasn’t exactly sure how much pleasure he would bring her. She was content to know that she would pleasure him though, but Zero must have tasted what she wanted in her blood when she felt his fangs prick her again. His hands immediately went to the place where their bodies were joined and searched out her sensitive pearl. Immediately, a cry of bliss escaped her, her head writhing against his sheets. 

“Did you like that?” he asked her breathlessly.

“Oh Zero,” was all she could get out.

Again, he stroked her, still thrusting into her to the brim so that the head of his shaft pressed against her empty womb. She dug her fingers into his shoulder, drawing a little blood and licking it away, but all she got from him was intense flaming passion and pleasure. Her own raised to meet him, her hips lifting thrust for thrust and squirming as he touched her sweet swollen clit. 

He kissed her, his tongue matching the pace he set below and they both pricked each other with extended fangs. The exchange of blood simultaneously brought Yuuki screaming his name over the edge of her orgasm, her body rhythmically clenching around him and shuddering in bliss. Zero lasted not a split second longer, a small cry escaping into her mouth. Greedily, she swallowed everything he gave her. Then, panting, they lay together in his bed. 

“Zero,” she whispered when her breath finally returned to her. “That was…”

He tensed in her arms. 

“Amazing,” she said after a good-natured moment of teasing silence.

He sighed heavily, nestling against her. “Good,” he said into her breasts. “Was it…?”

“Better,” she whispered and stroked his softly silvery hair. 

Naked, they lay like that, bodies entangled and exhausted. Zero pried himself away from her only to discard the used condom before once again collapsing beside her and allowing her to envelope him in her arms like he was a small child. Often, Zero felt alone, but now… with Yuuki once again with him as she had never been before, he finally felt complete. 

“Yuuki,” he whispered.

“Hmm?”

“I… I’ve always loved you.”

She stroked his hair. “I never realized how much I loved you until you weren’t with me anymore, Zero.”

His lips feathered against her pulse. He wanted to say something more to her, to thank her, to beg her never to leave him, but he choked back all those words. He just wanted this moment, even if he never had anything else. In this moment, he had Yuuki and everything was perfect… as perfect as if could possibly be for a vampire-hunter-turned-vampire. He hugged her naked body close against his own, breathed in the scent of her skin, and light licked the pulse in her neck.

“If you want,” she began.

He shook his head. “I just… I want to be with you.”

She embraced him tightly and kissed him. This time, rather than thirst or arousal pouring into his open mouth, he could taste only her love. Yuuki loved him and it was all he could ever have asked for. Kuran Kaname could have come in the window and shot him now and Zero would have been okay with that.

**The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out  
You left me in the dark  
No dawn, no day, I’m always in this twilight  
In the shadow of your heart**

The next morning, sunlight filtered in through the window and Zero was alone in his bed, naked, but it didn’t matter. He was alone. Last night had been only a dream. Tears burned in his eyes and throat. How cruel of his own mind, he thought bitterly. 

Then, his bedroom door opened and Yuuki stepped in, her breasts pressing against his pajama shirt, nipples pert, clearly naked beneath the borrowed garment. Her hair was short and her eyes were bright and she looked so beautiful. She looked like an angel.

“Hey, Zero,” she said. “Sleep well?”

For a moment, he could only stare at her. Then, a single tear escaped the tight grip he kept on his emotions and ran down his pale face.

“Zero?” she breathed.

He held out his arms to her and she came quickly into his embrace, holding his face against her breasts so he could listen to her heartbeat. She stroked his hair, threading her fingers through the soft tresses, and shushed him as silent sobs shook his body.

“You’re here,” he whispered.

“I am,” she murmured in return. “And Zero?”

He lifted his face and looked up into her beauty. 

She smiled down at him. “I love you.”

He tightened his arms around her. “I love you, too, so much.”

Then, he threaded his fingers through her thick short hair, pulling it aside to bare her neck, and lightly kissed her pulse before allowing his fangs to pierce her soft tender skin and drink her delicious blood. Yuuki gripped him close, her tongue snaking out to trace his pulse in a sweet wet open-mouthed kiss. Then, she too bit into his body and began to drink from his body. She could taste all his love and his desperation in his blood and he her happiness to finally be with him. They were meant to be together like this—they had always been soul mates on a cellular level, deeper even than shared blood.

**X:Of:X:Howls:X:and:X:Drums:X**

Kind of a cheesy ending, especially for me, but that’s okay. Those two have definitely earned a cheesy romantic “I love you” ending. After all, I kept teasing everyone with moments where it seemed like they were going to get together and then yanking it away from you all! I’m so mean!

Oh, and apologies in advance to anyone who was a little unnerved by how Yuuki and Zero were sharing blood a bunch of times while making love. I always thought that the way they could feel each other through their blood would be great in the midst of that. Try to deal with it.

Questions, comments, concerns?

And check out my first ORIGINAL NOVEL! **The Breaking of Poisonwood by Paradise Avenger.** (Summary: People were dead. When Skye Davis bought me at a slave auction as a birthday present for his brother, I had no idea what my new life was going to be like, but I had never expected this. It all started when Venus de Luna was killed and I was to take her place, to become the new savior… Then, bad things happened and some people died. In the heart of the earth, we discovered the ancient being that Frank Davis had found and created and used to his advantage. The Poisonwood—)

Drop me a review! Tell me what you think!

I bid you all adieu!


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